Hiren, you struck my attention with one of the quotes in your last post: “Nothing is as peaceful as the youth of a few carefree boys.” This was a fantastic assessment and summary of A Separate Peace.
I was especially surprised—like you—at the exchange of clothes and that whole situation. It alarmed me at how two friends—previously the best of friends and inseparable—could turn out to despise each other. When Gene was changing out of his clothes, all Finny could do was criticize and comment. However, his comments were not by any means encouraging, optimistic, or upbeat. “We went into the gym, along a marble hallway, and to my surprise we went on past the Trophy Room, where his make was already inscribed on one cup, one banner, and one embalmed football. I was sure that this was his goal, to mill over these lost trophies” (Knowles, 109). Why would a “friend” do this to another friend?
Another major turning point—as Hiren mentioned—in A Separate Peace was the moment when Gene was pondering the idea of going into the military post finishing high school at Devon. “And I have never forgotten that dazed look on Finny’s face when he thought that on the first day of his return to Devon I was going to desert him” (Knowles, 109). In my opinion this was a major turning point because for once in Finny’s life he had the lower hand. For once it was Finny who was scared by someone else’s actions. For once Finny had to fear for his social life, his athletic life and his encouragement. Without Gene to re-introduce Finny into the scene, who was he to become?
In a way, A Separate Peace reminds me of Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. 1942: a year where warfare is very much present and the atmosphere of a major conflict sticks close to the ground in the United States. Catch 22 is by far the most bizarre and thrilling book I have ever read. It makes no sense—yet it makes sense. That is the “catch” to Catch 22. The people who want to fight in the war knowing that if they fight they will be decommissioned eventually—although guaranteed to die before they are discharged—are considered the sane ones. The crazy people are those who wish to leave the service early, knowing that if they don’t leave they will end up dead. So everything that is said in the book is contradictory. Every sentence in Catch 22 should be read four or five times because it doesn’t match the sentence leading up to it. In A Separate Peace, whenever wartime is brought up, people question: “is there really a war? Is a war really going on? Is it?” I wonder if this is because the people in A Separate Peace are so isolated from the rest of the world that they have no conceptualization or reconciliation of what life is like outside the Devon School.
I worry about Leper. During the times of the war, if someone escaped without a discharge from the military and was then found, that was an automatic death and a shot in the head. This is why he had to be so secretive—because Leper knew about the consequences. Is it worth it?
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