Maginot Lines In John Knowles A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace by John Knowles shows that Gene, Finny, and Leper set up Maginot Lines that are ineffective and eventually lead to their own destruction.

Gene builds himself a mental Maginot Line against Finny, leading to a loss of self-identity. A Maginot Line was a defense structure that France built along its border with Italy and Germany during WWII, which included machine gun posts, concrete walls, tank obstacles, and artillery casements. Gene is becoming a very dedicated student, trying to be better than Finny, and realizing that Finny was also working hard in school, for “The new attacks of studying were his emergency measures to save himself. I redoubled my effort” (25). Gene, realizing that Finny is working hard to better his grade, begins to study to become top student and prove himself to Finny. Gene was stunned when he realized that “he [Finny] had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not

of the same quality as he. I couldn’t stand this”(28). Gene has cemented his metaphorical guns in the direction of a perceived enemy, while the enemy turns out to be a friend. Gene has his defenses pointed to Finny, thinking he knows the true enemy, when in reality his perception is contorted by his inferiority complex.
Finny uses denial of the war and the jouncing of the limb as his protection from confronting his reality. Gene and Finny are discussing the war when Finny says “‘They’ve cooked up this war fake.”.... Then my eyes fell on the bound and cast white mass pointing at me, and as it was always to do, it brought me down out of Finny’s world of invention, down again as I had fallen after awakening that morning, down to reality, to the facts”(61). Because of his dire need to be a hero and distract himself from his injury, Finny dismisses every single thought of the war being an actual occurrence. After a discussion with Gene and Brinker about Leper’s sanity, Gene notices that “he [Finny] quietly brought to a close all his special inventions which had carried us through the winter. Now the facts were reestablished, and gone were all the fantasies”(84). Finny becomes weary of the idea that there is no war, lowering the defences and fantasies he placed to protect himself.
Leper builds himself a mental Maginot Line against many of the characters, leading to his eventual insanity.

Leper’s Maginot Lines were not only set up against Gene and Finny, but also the majority of his friends. When Gene hears about Leper’s enlistment, he thinks to himself “his enlistment seemed just another of Leper’s vagaries, such as the time he slept on top of Mount Katahdin in Maine”. By doing this he is able to shield himself against his friends, using the physical distance he places between them.While Leper and Gene were discussing the war, Gene brought up brinker and “he [Leper] broke into sobs…. Hoarse, cracking sobs broke from him”(79). When Leper returned from the war, not only was he unstable, but his Maginot Lines that he set up to distance himself from his friends began to crumble. Leper set up Maginot Lines to keep his friends out and doing so, when he wanted to let them back in, they did not want to return. He lost the friendship of Gene, Finny and

Brinker,
Gene, Leper, and Finny set up Maginot Lines, which led to each paying a great cost. Gene’s Maginot Line was directed towards Finny, while Leper’s was a broad section of his friends. Though Maginot Lines are imaginary, they are able to affect people in any situation.