An analysis of John Knowles A Separate Peace brings up the theme of man's inhumanity to his fellow man. What makes this novel unique is that in protesting war, Knowles never overtly referred to the blood and gore of war; he showed the consequences of war, some paralleling the nature of war and some simply laying out how World War II affected noncombatants thousand miles away. There have been many books written about war, what happens, why it happens, and why wars should stop. Knowles explains through the life of Finny why war never will cease, with only one death in the entire book; a quiet one at that.

When Gene is responsible for Finny's fall off the tree, the reader is in some confusion as to what really happened. All the book reads at this juncture is "Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step near him, and then my knees bounced and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud." The reade

A final example of man's inhumanity to man as shown in A Separate Peace is the inquiry by Brinker and his panel to find out what happened the day Finny broke his leg. Gene himself says of Brinker and the proceedings: "He's enjoying this, he's imagining himself Justice incarnate, balancing the scales. He's forgotten that Justice incarnate is not only blindfolding the scales but also blindfolded." With Finny begging for him to stop, he relentlessly probed, determined to find the truth, a truth that helped no one and hurt everyone. Because Brinker insisted on proceeding with his little drama, Finny loses what was possibly one of his most precious possessions: Gene. All this playacting ultimately accomplished was one thing: Finny's death. The marrow of Finny's bones killed him, thus, it seems the symbolism is man's inner core will defeat him. Because we are human, we are imperfect, and the perfect among us (symbolized by Finny) cannot exist, so that ideal society will never become a reality.

Another example of man's capacity for viciousness against his fellow is Leper's insanity. Leper, an outcast at Devon, was one

Some common words found in the essay are:
War II, America Constitution, Gene Brinker, Separate Peace, Consider Gene's, Leper Brinker, American Japanese-American, separate peace, Thematic Analysis, justice incarnate, man's inhumanity, war declared, gene responsible, example man's,
Approximate Word count = 754
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)