Symbols In A Separate Peace

Throughout A Separate Peace, there is a lot of objects that have deep symbolic meanings. One such symbol is a copy of The Iliad, present at the Winter Carnival. This copy of Homer’s classic epic about the Trojan war is a symbolic allegory for the war that’s taking place during A Separate Peace, and it’s burning symbolises the detachment and seclusion from the realities of war that it possesses. Throughout the book, it's evident that, for the longest time, Devon is untouched by the war. Finny himself outright denies the war's existence.

Though the Iliad's meaning in the novel is strong, the significance it has on the actual story isn't much. It only appears for a short period of time during the Winter Carnival scene in the book. At the beginning

However, Finny believes that the games cannot properly be opened without the "sacred fire of Olympus" (Knowles, 72). Deciding to sacrifice one of the prizes, he grabs The Iliad seemingly at random, yet its significance is evident as soon as the book begins to burn. Whether Finny chose this book on purpose or not, it's obvious Knowles did.

Though the Iliad's appearance is brief in the story, the significance of Finny's one small action summarises a very prominent theme throughout the book: Devon's seclusion from the war. Though the war has left a mark on Devon during the Summer Session, as we see seniors training with callisthenics and hear discussions of V12s, the same cannot be said for the Winter Session. Devon seems to exist in its own bubble of solitude, and Finny himself doesn't believe there's a war going on. Not long after returning to Devon, he says this to Gene, "The fat old men [...] don’t want us crowding them out of their jobs. They’ve made

Perhaps the most obvious example of this is Gene's visit to Leper. In this particular scene, Gene lashes out violently against Leper multiple times, seemingly for no reason. The first time, he is provoked when Leper mentions "that time [Gene] knocked Finny out of the tree" (Knowles, 77). Though in this case, it's not the reality of the war that Gene is facing, it's still a reality he wanted to keep subdued. Acting in a fit of blind rage, Gene knocks his chair over, causing Leper to remark that he always was "a savage underneath" (Knowles, 77). The second and final incident comes about when Leper goes into a bit too much detail about his time in the war, mentioning things like Brinker being transformed into a woman and his inability to sleep at night or eat in a lunch hall. The reality of war started to beat harshly against the floodgates of his separate peace, and he could scarcely keep his defence up for long. Enraged, he yelled at Leper to shut up and stumbled away, disoriented, as Leper lay rambling in the snow behind him. Gene, as narrator, admits his intolerance for the truth. He writes, " I didn’t want to hear any more of it. Not now or ever" (Knowles, 81). Gene is not the only one to fall under the sway of Devon's peaceful and secluded nature, though. Finny himself forwent the idea of a war on, as it conflicted with his plans.