A Separate Peace
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A Separate Peace is John Knowles' first published novel, released in 1959. The work is Knowles' most widely-known, and one of the most famous coming-of-age novels.
Plot summary
The novel begins with the adult Gene Forrester returning to Devon, an exclusive New Hampshire prep school, which Gene had attended in his youth. The sights of Devon, and in particular a large tree and a marble staircase, evoke memories and emotions within Gene. The book then travels back to Gene's past, immediately introducing a number of characters, including Phineas. Despite their polar personalities, Gene and Phineas made fast friends at Devon: Gene's quiet, introverted intellectual personality matches Finny's more extroverted, carefree, athletic demeanor.
One of Finny's ideas during Gene's "Sarcastic Summer" of 1942 is to create a "Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session", with Gene and himself as charter members. He also creates a game called "Blitz Ball", (the name being derived from the term blitzkrieg, appropriate as the story is written in a World War II setting). Finny creates a rite of induction by having members jump into the Devon River from a large, high tree. One night, Finny decides that he and Gene should jump together. While on the limb, with Finny about to jump, Gene jounces the limb. There is no elaboration; his actions are bluntly stated and regretted soon after they are committed. As a result of Gene's act of jealousy, Finny loses his balance, falls out of the tree, and breaks his leg. It is too late for Gene to realize that he "was not of the same quality" as Finny; that Gene is suspicious and tends to see ulterior motives where there are none. Gene contemplates his action while Finny slowly recovers.
The only time he shows any anger towards Gene is when Gene first tries to confess to knocking Finny off the tree. Finny refuses to believe it, more wounded by that attempted confession in some ways than he was by the act itself. Upon his return, Finny begins to create a fantasy world of sorts around him to avoid facing the war, whose existence he emphatically denies ("Don't be a sap. There is no war."). Finny is "the essence of this careless peace". Because his leg injury prevents him from engaging in sports activity, Finny encourages Gene to build up his own physical strength and athletic prowess. He even trains Gene for the possible 1944 Winter Olympics, which ended up being cancelled due to the war.
The action comes to a head when another student, Brinker Hadley, drags Gene and Finny into a class room and puts them on trial to determine Finny's "casualty". They try to force the two to confront the truth of how and why Finny broke his leg. Leper Lepellier (once soft and quiet, now mentally imbalanced from his experience in the war) is called in, and he recalls the jump as he saw it, saying the two boys moved "like an engine", as in one went up and one went down. Finny runs from the room and falls down a nearby flight of stairs, cleanly breaking his injured leg. Gene tries to go to the infirmary and see Finny, but Finny is furious with him and will not see him. Gene walks around the campus that night as if he were a ghost. The next morning, Gene sees Finny and they reconcile their differences: Gene admits that he made Finny fall, but only because it came from some impulse he could not control. Finny accepts this quite easily and forgives him, but Gene is still unsure of his excuse and is not sure if he purposely caused Finny's fall. Gene leaves Finny, waiting for Finny to come out of surgery to set the bone, and meets the doctor afterwards. The doctor informs Gene that during the operation some bone marrow from Finny's leg went through his blood stream and to his heart, killing him. Gene takes the news as a shock, but never cries about Finny.
Gene reflects that Finny's death was a result of Gene's hatred and jealousy towards him. He explains that there is a point in everyone's life when they realize that there is evil in the world and that they must fight their inner demons to control themselves. It is at that time when one's innocence is lost forever. Only Phineas was innocent, and although this made him unique, Gene believes it eventually led to his demise.
Finny is Gene's best friend. He also has a talent for talking his way out of any problem, not by deceit, but rather by his infectious good nature, so much so that teachers simply cannot remain angry with him. He isn't the best student, but he still passes. In other words, he seems perfect in almost every way. His failing is that he does not realize that he is unique, that he cannot see the flaws in other people: their jealousy, their hatred. His "good natured spirit" is shown in the one game which he creates, in which there are no winners or losers, but just players. At one point he breaks a school swimming record with only Gene present, but refuses to tell anyone; he only wanted to know that he could do it. Gene says that "Finny was too unusual for competition", and in the same vein, he does not need a last name. At the end of the book, Finny dies when bone marrow enters his bloodstream and stops his heart.
Brinker Hadley
Brinker is an elitist student leader. He is, in some ways, a foil to Finny's character. He is also a charismatic student leader, but his devotion is to order and rules, while Finny's is to spontaneity and anarchic fun. While Finny embodied the spirit of the "summer session", Brinker is the king of the winter session, with its return of discipline and constant reminders of approaching war. A noted "joker", he is the first to accuse Gene of causing Phineas's accident. Later in the novel, Brinker organizes a "trial" with his cronies to "uncover the facts" behind Finny's accident. Brinker's name is symbolic, as he tends to push people "to the brink"; this is demonstrated many times in the book, most obviously during the trial.
Elwin "Leper" Lepellier
Leper is the isolationist of the novel who was often ridiculed by fellow classmates. He was present when Finny "fell" from the tree. Eventually Leper, surprising his classmates, enlists in the army and then deserts during a mental breakdown (and also to avoid a Section 8 discharge), and returns home to Vermont. He then returns to school to hide as he is suffering from insanity brought on by his breakdown in the military. He is present when Finny slips down the marble staircase and breaks his leg again. His name is symbolic of his personality. Sufferers of leprosy are called "lepers" and are isolated from society. Similarly, Leper is an isolated person, avoiding social interaction whenever possible. After deserting, Leper suffers from hallucinations, mostly concerning transformations: men into women, chair arms into human arms. This illustrates both the turmoil which the war causes in the boys, and the transformation that they face in the Army and the war
Major themes
The novel also touches on themes of innocence and its loss. Devon is an area of separate peace during World War II. Even after the incident with the tree, Finny thinks that he fell out of the tree by accident, suggesting that one's innocence can (to some extent) remain true in the face of pain and work. His death, caused by bone marrow from his leg moving to and blocking his heart, can figuratively be seen as Gene breaking Finny's heart.
After Finny dies, Gene realizes that Finny's outlook on life and other people is justified and is superior to his own. He remarks that everyone is in a constant mental state of alert that is unnecessary, and that sometimes this becomes an obsession that hinders their every action.
It has also been inferred by many readers that the novel portrays the author's homosexuality in Gene and Finny. Both boys are said to be involved in a gay relationship, resulting in Gene's extreme jealousy.
Allusions and references from other works
- In the movie Sideways, an excerpt from A Separate Peace (in which Gene reflects on Finny's death) is being read aloud in Miles' English class. The film centers on a week-long misadventure of two college-alum friends, Miles and Jack, and a friendship that bears similarities to Gene and Finny; many events in the film are symbolic references to the novel.[citation needed]
- In Paul Russell's novel The Coming Storm, A Separate Peace is used as a text in English class, and falls out of a tree into the Devon River.
- In The Simpsons, the episode "Mother Simpson" features a discussion between Lisa and Grandma Simpson about the book:
- Grandma Simpson: "Although I hardly consider A Separate Peace the ninth grade level."
- Lisa Simpson: "Yeah, more like preschool."
- Grandma Simpson: "I hate John Knowles."
- Lisa Simpson: "Me too."
- In Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower Charlie reads A Separate Peace for his English teacher.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
- In 1972 it was adapted into a movie starring Parker Stevenson and John Heyl.
- It was later adapted into a made-for-TV movie by Showtime in 2004.
External links
