Summary Of Separate Peace By John Knowles

The fiction novel Separate Peace by John Knowles depicts the life of a teenage boy during WWII. In the text, it mentions several times how the boys at the Devon School attempted to disregard the existence of the war. However, the reality of the war soon strikes the school and war life is introduced to the boys. There are several components of how the war gradually took hold of Devon, beginning with how it was almost non-existent in the summer, continuing with how it soon became a serious topic in the fall, and ultimately a way of life for the boys come winter and spring. First of all, the war at the Devon school during Gene and Finny’s freshman year in the summer was only an afterthought to them. It was known that the war was happening and

Finny attempts to disregard it and says that it isn’t real. Only until Finny sees Leper Lepellier, the first of the class’s recruits, does he believe that the war is actually real. This is stated in the passage, “‘And you told me about Leper, that he’s gone crazy. that’s the word, we might was well admit it. Leper’s gone crazy. When I heard that about Leper, then I knew that the war was real, this war and all the wars. If a war can drive somebody crazy, then it’s real all right. Oh I guess I always knew, but I didn’t have to admit it.’” (Knowles pg. 163) Additionally, another aspect of this is brought up on shmoop.com in the article titled “Sports, Games, and the War” when it states, “Finny tries to use sport to compensate for not being able to participate in war. And don't forget the tree incident itself – a devastating, warlike perversion of what was once purely good, tree-jumping sport.” This brings in the idea that Finny tried his hardest to push against the war. He wanted it to be fake so that he didn’t actually miss an adventure or saw others take one that he could never undergo. However, as soon as Leper goes crazy, the war becomes a devastating truth to the boys at Devon, completely dominating the school and its