“Freedom is the power to choose our own chains” (Rousseau). Rousseau discusses the idea that freedom gives us enough power to pick who or what has control over us, which is an idea that is continually presented in the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles. When in a position to choose, people will strive to lack personal control as a way to relieve their physical or mental pain. People like to live without control to lessen the burden of their suffering. To demonstrate this, Phineas uses the hard cider as a tool that will take away his control. While drinking the hard cider, Phineas experienced “inner joy at life for a moment as it should be” (Knowles 127). To experience joy, Phineas would have to be without pain. Phineas knows that the