Finding That Separate Peace

Wars are fires, ignited by some of the simplest of things in life. Most people only recognize the physical aspects, when in reality, wars create psychological damage as well. There may be massive amounts of peope helping, but every victim has to extinguish their own fire in order to find their separate peace. In John Knowles' A Separate Peace, Knowles employs symbolism to illustrate Gene's path to finding his separate peace.

Finny's pink shirt symbolizes Finny's nonconformity, which is the envy and goal of Gene. When Finny wears the pink shirt, Gene says that "no one else in the school could have done so without some risk of having it torn from his back" (18). Gene realizes that Finny has the ability to stand out and get away with it. Gene even begins "envying him"(18). This envy, brought out by the shirt, represents the catalyst of Gene's internal war. When Gene says, "I decided to put on his clothes... I had no idea why this gave me such intense relief, but it seemed, standing there in Finny's triumphant shirt, that I would never stumble thorugh the confusions of my own character again", he infers that Finny's shirt is more than just an article of clothing(54). For Gene to have a desire to put on Finny's clothes right after Finny's accident shows the immense reverence that Gene has towards Finny. Gene witnessed Finny falling out of the tree, and had even described it as a "clumsy physical action", yet he finds himself trying to be like Finny right after. Gene puts on Finny's clothes to feel the relief from his guilt for causing Finny's accident. The confusions of his character seems to be an enigma within himself, in which Gene is caught between regretting what he did to Finny and being able to justify his actions with his non-existent competition. Finding refuge in Finny's clothes not only allows him to escape his guilt, but also allows him to destroy the feelings at the root of that guilt. Gene feels guilty about the accident because he knows how envious he was and cannot help but think that his envy influenced his actions.

Devon symbolizes Gene's war grounds, where his war begins and ends. Upon Finny's absence at Devon, Gene says that "peace had deserted Devon. Although not in the look of the campus and village; they retained much of their dreaming summer calm"(64). Finny represents peace at Devon, and now that he wasn't there, there was no peace. As Gene is leaving for war, he says, "I no longer had any qualms..., although i couldn't help being glad that i would not be at Devon, at anywhere like Devon... I could feel now in the gathering, glowing sense of sureness... I was ready for the war, now that I no longer had any hatred to contribute to it. My fury was gone, I felt it gone, dried up at the osurce, withered and lifeless... I was ride of it forever"(195). Now that