Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

Although violent fighting is typically what comes to mind when one thinks of the military, brutal battles do not have to take place for there to be a war. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, characters experience internal struggles which cause them to create enemies for themselves and fight wars against them. The story takes place during World War II at an all boys boarding school called Devon. It follows the rivalry and companionship between two best friends, Gene and Finny. During his time at school, Gene was emotionally insecure, which caused him to create a war against his best friend, that ended when he realized the war was really against himself.

Gene feels a constant yearning for approval, has a negative outlook on life, and often compares

Gene first realizes that although he hates Finny, Finny does not hate him. Gene remarks that “it wasn’t [his] neck, but [his] understanding which was menaced. [Finny] had never been jealous of [him] for a second” (59). Gene’s “understanding” of the situation between him and Finny was completely wrong: Finny was not reciprocating the same feeling of competitiveness as Gene. After realizing that Finny “had never been jealous of [him] for a second”, Gene feels a new wave of worthlessness and inferiority to Finny and learns that his main struggles are not between him and Finny but inside of himself. After understanding that Finny does not hate him, Gene acknowledges the existence of the darkness and bad feelings inside of him. Gene think that “[he] was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted [him]; there was always something deadly lurking in anything [he] wanted, anything [he] loved. And if it wasn’t there, as for example with Phineas, then [he] put it there [himself]” (101). Finny learns that “something deadly” exists inside of him, and is scared when he bares these feelings. He starts unnecessary wars against “anything [he] wanted, anything [he] loved”. Furthermore, once Finny learns that he has dark feelings inside of himself, he also learns that is his own enemy. At the end of the novel, Finny reflects on himself and says, “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (204). He was on “active duty” at school when he was emotionally insecure and paranoid of Phineas. His “enemy” was the jealous and warlike aspect of his personality, which he “killed” by achieving a separate peace within himself. Gene mistakenly ruined Finny’s life because