Coming of Age in A Separate Peace by John Knowles

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Recommended: John Knowles views on war in a separate piece

A Separate Peace
“Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed” -Friedrich Nietzsche. A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a coming of age and tragedy novel. In this book, John Knowles shows us the lives of teenage boys during World War II. They boys may seem alright with their cheerful attitudes, but the raging war is still on their minds. They are wondering what it would be like to become a war hero, how everyone would respect them or if the war isn’t as great as it seems. The glory of World War II enticed Finny, Leper, and Brinker only to later reveal to them its true colors.
Finny is very charismatic, athletic, and everyone tends to love him, even the teachers. Finny wants to join the war and be part of what was going on. However, when Finny breaks his leg and becomes crippled, he is in denial about the war. He says that now he believes that the war is fake and that it’s just a huge scheme. Right before he was about have an operation for his broken leg, the second time, Finny confesses his actual reason for being in denial towards the war, he says, “‘I’ve been writing to the Army and the Navy and the Marines and the Canadians and everybody else all winter. Did you know that? No, you didn’t know that. I used the Post Office in town as my return address. They all gave me the same answer after they saw my medical report on me. The answer was no soap. We can’t use you. I also wrote to the Coast Guard, the merchant Marines, I also wrote to General de Gaulle personally, I also wrote Chiang Kai-shek, and I was about ready to write to somebody in Russia.’” (Knowles 181-182). “‘I’ll hate it everywhere if I’m not in this war! Why do you think I kept saying there wasn’t any war all wint...

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...artly from that, don't get me wrong-but if you can say that you were up front where there was some real shooting going on, then that will mean a whole lot to you in years to come" (Knowles 191). Here he is going on about how great the war is, but he later decides he doesn’t want to part of the war. Toward the end of the book, Brinker realizes that the war isn’t great, but in fact very brutal and unfair. Brinker is now changed forever.
All the illusions that these three characters from A Separate Peace had are now gone and they were brought back to reality. They became totally different people. But to begin with, they all wanted to go to the war to become heroes, and for the glory, but soon they realized that it was all an illusion and that none of it was true. But in fact, the war was unfair and very brutal. Finny, Leper, and Brinker will never be the same again.

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