Throughout the story Gene, the main character and the narrator, feels that there is a war between Finny, his best friend, and himself. It is this feeling that causes Gene's to be mean to Finny and treat him unfairly. Gene first starts to feel his hatred toward Finny when he starts to envy Finny because of his excellence in sports. To make himself feel better Gene determines that Finny is trying to ruin his studies so he can be the most athletic and smartest person on campus. This thought infuriates Gene and he decides that he needs revenge. When Finny and Gene go for a double jump Gene shakes the tree and Finny falls out. After Finny hits the ground Gene jumps and is cleansed of all fear. Throughout the novel Gene is mean to Finny. This is revealed when Gene goes to visit Finny before fall session. Gene mentions the tree inciden

Ever since Gene shook the tree everyone expects he did it intentionally except Finny. Gene did commit the crime intentionally but he doesn't want the rest of society to find out. Some people think that he did it for different reasons. The first person who suspected is Brinker. He accuses Gene for the crime to get extra space in the dorm. Brinker then takes Gene to the butt room for a smoke and has a mini-trail there. Gene does everything in his power to deny the charge; afterwards he leaves the room with out a smoke. The next person to suspect Gene for the crime is Leper, who has gone psycho. He accuses Gene of being a savage underneath and this is why he shook the limb. With hearing this, Gene releases his savage on Leper and kicks his chair over. While falling Leper mummers, "Always were a savage." The next time Gene has to face society is when the campus has a trail against the tree theory. Brinker still thinks that Gene shook the limb intentionally now for several reasons. At the trail Gene claims to have forgotten what happened and goes along with what Finny remembers until Finny comes to realization. "Then it was as though someone suddenly slapped him 'No, that was on the ground when I said that to you. I said that to you on the ground, and then the two of us started to climb...' " After Finny was on the right track he forgets what happened so Brinker gets Leper. Leper describes the incident as an engine, it was like two pistons the first one went down and then the second followed and then fell off. Then Leper stops and freaks out and runs out of the building. Brinker yells at him to stop to get all of the facts, then Finny takes off running. "The excellent exterior acoustics recorded his rushing steps and the quick rapping of his can along the corridor and on the first steps of the marble stairway. Then these separate sounds collided into the general tumult of his body falling clumsily down the white marble stairs." The last person to accuse Gene of the tree accident was Finny. When Gene went to visit Finny in recovery he goes to Finny's window. " 'I came to-' 'You want to break something else in me!

Some common words found in the essay are:
Finny Gene, Leper Leper, Leper Gene, Leper Throughout, John Knowles, Brinker Gene, Separate Peace, Leper Gene's, finny gene, tells gene, separate peace, john knowles, , war shown, shown leper, didn't hear, accuses gene, war shown leper, Peace John, john knowles expresses, gene society, gene notices, separate peace john, country vs country, accuses gene savage,
Approximate Word count = 1448
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)