A Separate Peace Character Analysis

John Knowles’s novel A Separate Peace follows a group of private school students during a turning point in their lives. After having been secluded from the chaos around the world, their sudden involvement in Finny’s injury and the war effort force them to adopt different perspectives. The more they learn from these new viewpoints, the more they mature and understand how little effect their childhood problems have on the world around them. A Separate Peace shows that in order to grow as a person it is necessary to view life from a different perspective.

When a world is at war, to truly understand that world, realizing what a war entails is greatly important. Before becoming old enough to enlist, the Devon boys have little comprehension or interest

in the war effort, and only regard it as spectacle or simply claim “the war is a myth” (Knowles, ch8). Leper’s belief in this warped understanding only worsens his transformation once he enlists: he goes in expecting the spectacle, and is driven insane because of it. Once the other students realize the effect the war had on Leper, despite that he never actually entered the battlefield, they too finally understand just how dangerous it is. Gene and Brinker, who had previously considered enlisting themselves, are haunted by Leper’s words and begin to take the war seriously. Even Finny, who denied the war’s existance out of depression that he could never partake in it, puts evidence over his preferred reality and admits that anything that could drive someone crazy must be real. Faced with an actual casualty of war in their friend, the Devon boys abandon their blissful ignorance in favo of the perspective Leper gained firsthand: that “the war [is] deadly.” (115)
Gene and Finny begin the novel with specific roles in their partnership: Finny’s outgoing attitude allows him to succeed in life naturally, while Gene is thoughtful, and must work hard to achieve anything.

This creates an unusual dynamic between them, as while Gene’s jealousy results in him constantly trying to outdo Finny, Finny simply enjoys their friendship, and appears unaware of Gene’s resentment. When Finny falls from the tree, however, and is forced to look up to Gene as Gene once did to him, their roles become reversed. Now the physically dominant one, Gene is given purpose in caring for Finny, and learns to be a better person by helping and supporting his newly crippled friend. Meanwhile, Gene’s original jealousy is tranferred to Finny. Whereas Gene was envious of Finny’s social and sports skills, Finny is bitter that the friend who pushed him off a tree can still live normally, while Finny is restricted by his injury. Now both having shared different perspectives on life, Gene and Finny start living from a more adult perspective. Gene finally views Finny as a person rather than a competitor, and learns to care for more than himself by assisting Finny in his disabled state. Similarly, having been subjected to tragedy, Finny loses his rose-colored glasses and accepts that misfortune is a part of life. Gene and Finny’s changed perspective results in their growing as

people.
When Gene was a teenager, all of his problems seemed larger than they actually were. His inferiority complex drove most of his decisions, and outdoing Finny was his only major goal. Adults never showed interest in these issues, as from their perspectives, there are far worse issues plaguing teenagers: namely, schoolwork or the war, according to the Devon teachers and Brinker’s father. Only when Finny gets injured do the adults intervene, as Gene and the other children are too stunned to do anything other than run for help. A similar perspective strikes Gene when he returns to Devon years later. Despite being overwhelmed by how little the school has changed, everything appears much smaller to him, from the tree where Finny first fell to the steps where he fell for the last time. By returning to Devon years later, Gene revisits his childhood trauma through a more experienced perspective. Through realizing how small these locations that were once so important to him are, Gene is finally able to confront his past and get over his guilt for his part in Finny’s death. Whereas he had left Devon troubled by the impact of recent events, Gene returns feeling “changed and harmonized,” much like the school itself (15). Only by returning to Devon after growing as a person can Gene put things in perspective, and finally overcome his past.
A Separate Peace is a coming of age story, depicting how naive schoolchildren’s world perspectives are changed after tragedy strikes their lives.

Leper’s quiet, peaceful demeanor shatters after experiencing war firsthand, and his subsequent loss of sanity inspires the others to finally realize that the war is far more dangerous than they had imagined. Finny’s injury allows him to self-reflect, as his reliance on others makes him understand more about life and how his natural athleticism will no longer be enough to help him succeed. Gene’s world view is similarly widened, as Finny’s dependancy allows him to care for more than just himself, and he realizes how small his problems were back in Devon thanks to experiences outside of school in the real world. By detailing us the original naivety and subsequent growth expressed by his characters, Knowles’ novel shows that in order to mature and understand the real world, one must view it from a different

perspective.