Theme Of Innocence In A Separate Peace

There is a quote by well known author Ernest Hemingway, which states, "all things truly wicked start with innocence."This quote embodies the theme innocence vs. age in the novel A Separate Peace very well. The theme reoccurs often, most notably in characters such as Leper and Gene, and even affects the entire student body at Devon. All of these characters experience a development from innocence and childhood to maturity and a more in depth understanding of the world. In the novel, Leper undergoes a quick and sudden progression into the real world and maturity. Leper enlists in the army by choice, all though he is timid and seemingly not stable enough. Ultimately Leper is driven mad by the indecent sights of the war. In the beginning of the

At the end of the novel, Gene finally confesses what he did to Finny which took a lot of courage even though he did the wrong thing to begin with. As exemplified on page 115, Finny matures so much throughout the novel and apologizes for his actions towards Finny, he says, “… it was just some ignorance inside me, some crazy thing inside me, something blind, that’s all it was.” When apologizing to Finny and acknowledging that he did make a mistake and caused harm to Finny because of it. This is an example of Gene’s progression from a childlike mentality of not owning his mistakes, to claiming them and accepting his consequences. Gene also makes a statement towards the end of the novel that he didn’t have any need to lie anymore like he did before. By gaining confidence in himself and who he was as a person, he evolves as a character into maturity from his unfledged nature. His claim that he does not feel the need to lie anymore is evidence that he is growing up enough not to have to lie to feel good about him. Gene advances through the novel because he owns up to his mistakes, stops lying to others, and gains confidence in

The students at Devon were forced to mature by the death of Finny in the end of the novel. Losing one of their peers was a shocking experience that sort of, “brought them into reality,” and made tragedy real. Especially because something so sad happened to someone who was their own age. This caused the student body to have to mature and grow emotionally to deal with the loss of their friend, but also with the fact that tragedy is real and closer to home than they assumed. The war is also another aspect that caused the boys to grow up a little bit. The reality of the situation and the gore involved with war is a scary thing for children to deal with, especially when faced with the possibility that they will most likely be drafted right into it within a matter of years. As Mr. Patch-Withers stated, the war matured the boys by at least two years past their age. And lastly, the strains put on adults by the war sometimes caused them to put pressure on the children. They expect them to grow up quicker and be more mature to adult subjects, even if they expect these things subconsciously. The boys have to mature to effectively adapt to these expectations. The students at Devon have to mature to deal with the death of Finny, the dangers of the war, and the expectations of adults around