A Seperate Peace - Symbolism
A Seperate Peace - Symbolism
1) The term “a separate peace” means that two people have come to an agreement on their own standards. In the novel A Separate Peace, the agreement is made between the characters Gene and Finny. I believe Knowles chose this title, because it is a good way to describe the relationship between the two characters at the end of the story.
At the beginning of the story Gene and Finny were good friends. Sometimes Finny did some things that Gene thought were too wild, like wear the school tie as a belt. These things sometimes upset Gene, because Finny could talk his way out of any punishment. Secretly Gene almost wants to see Finny get in trouble, but Gene talks himself out of these feelings. Gene also feels that being friends with Finny is something forced upon him. When the two boys are at the beach, Gene decides not to respond to Finny’s statement that they are good friends. This starts an inner struggle inside Gene. He no longer knows whether or not to admire Finny, or resent him. Gene gets back to Devon from the beach, just in time to take a trigonometry test. Gene fails the test, which has never happened. Finny keeps luring Gene away from work to do fun things. This starts to make Gene feel like Finny is trying to ruin his academic career. Despite Gene’s intuitions, Gene and Finny get along well for the following weeks. Later on, Finny interrupts Gene’s studying to tell him that Leper is going to jump from the tree (which is an initiation into Gene’s Suicide Society). Gene suspects that Finny talked Leper into it, just so Finny could disrupt Gene’s studying. Finny insists that Gene doesn’t have to go if he needs to study, but Gene says he has studied enough and that he’ll go watch Leper jump. On the way to the tree, Gene decides that there never was any intended by Finny. When the two get to the tree, Finny insists they do a double jump. Finny goes out onto the end of the branch, and waits for Gene to get into the tree. When he does get onto the branch, Gene jounces the branch. This causes Finny to lose his balance, and fall out of the tree with a sickening thud.
When the dust clears, Finny has a broken leg, and Gene feels insecure...