A Separate Piece

John Knowles used an enormous amount of themes in his book A Separate Piece. The time frame of this book is during the atrocities of World War II. The guys at Devon don't really ever realize exactly what is going on overseas. Most of the book Gene is very jealous of Finny. The jealousy turns into an action, which leads to a tremendous amount of guilt for Gene.

The book takes place during World War II. In the beginning of the book the guys at Devon do what they can to help the war effort; all but Leper. They picked apples and at one point were shoveling snow off a railroad. When they were shoveling a train went by full of young men the same age as them. They had enlisted and are going to serve the United States armed forces. Once the train passed they all knew they had to make a decision whether to enlist or wait to be drafted. Leper is the first to enlist and was only there for a short time when he ran away because they were going to give him a level 8 discharge. Finny visits Leper and realizes he's a completely different person. Leper makes the guys at Devon hold off on their decision. Later we find out that there was one person trying to enlist everywhere and that was finny. Since he was in a wheelchair no one anywhere would let him join. At the end Brinker and Gene both enlist even though Brinker's dad thinks they should go to the front lines to fight.

Gene spends all of his time being jealous of Finny. Finny is the one that is good at sports, funny, all the teachers like him, and he has tons of friends. Gene is more academic and not very athletic but wishes to be more like Finny. The jealousy that Gene has is holding them back from truly being best friends. Finny really does believe Gene is his best friend and he tells him on the beach the day they skipped school. Gene has no reply. His jealousy isn't letting them be best friends and turns into Gene possibly moving the branch; causing Finny to fall and break his leg.

Gene has incredible guilt because of Finny breaking his leg. He thinks he moved the branch, which forced Finny to fall. Finny can no longer do what he loved which was to always be out having fun and being active. Gene knows he took that away from him. Gene now also knows that Finny has been trying to enlist but no one will take him, and he was going to train for the Olympics but no longer can. Finny lives through Gene after the accident. He makes him try out for sports, and train for the Olympics. Gene knows he has no choice but to do what Finny wants. When Finny dies after breaking his leg the second time Gene gets to tell Finny that he thought he moved the branch that made him fall. At least some of the guilt was off of Gene.

The whole book Gene and Finny were best friends. Finny was a great best friend and Gene wasn't. Gene really did nothing but hurt Finny. Finny was there for Gene and always thought that they were close. He never really