Summary Of John Knowles A Separate Peace

During a time when an estimated sixty million people died, is it possible for a group of schoolboys to hold onto peace? The year is 1942 and World War II is just beginning for the United States. Facing conscription when they come of age, a group of sixteen year old boys hit the books, rather than the training ground. Despite living with constant reminders of their looming fate, Gene, Finny, and their friends will not give up their chance at normal teenage life. During an eventful school year these boys grasp at an eluding calmness. The title of John Knowles’ most famous work, A Separate Peace, refers to numerous occasions during the lives of the Devon School boys and is a recurring motif throughout the novel; however, the peace the boys find …show more content…
Through the formation of an elite club, the boys spend their time having fun, rather than focusing on the severity of the war. Finny and Gene become charter members for the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. This society meets every night. The boys are able to distract themselves from the dangerous closing in around them through the fun they have with each other. Not only did Finny help form the Suicide Society, but he also organized a winter carnival. In his classmates, Finny began to see lethargic and depressed feelings. In order to add enjoyment to their boring lives, Finny recruits many of the boys in his dorm to participate in various sporting events and conquests. Finny accomplishes his goal when he brings an afternoon of pleasure and recreation to his friends and occupies them in order to take their minds from dreary thoughts, like those of the war. Most importantly, Finny brought peace to his friends. “It wasn’t the cider which made me surpass myself, it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace” (72). Despite the attempts of these close companions, the war still manages to invade their lives. Eventually, paratroops arrive at Devon and form a base. Gene notices this saying, “The Far Common could be seen from the window of my room, and early in June I stood at the window and watched the war moving in to occupy it. The advance guard which came down the street from the railroad station consisted of a number of Jeeps” (106). Additionally, the students must leave the school and join their own branches of the military. Thus, the confidants finally must leave not just each other but also the peace they granted one other behind for violent

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