A separate peace

A detailed Summary of A separate peace

"...It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart."

The background of "A separate Peace" is the Second World War and the focus of book is a group of sixteen-year-old boys who are moving towards a war. The extract comes from the end of the book where Due to what Gene had done to Finny, he has been made to look at himself and now sees the war differently from the other boys. Gene has been forced to face his own "ignorant heart," and he now feels that he understands that people can be evil and hurt those who love them. Gene now knows that wars are created not by generations but by the human "ignorant heart".

In "A separate Peace" there are two wars being fought. The major war is Word War Two while the other war is the one that Gene tries to create between himself and Finny. This is war is always a single sided battle, as it is both created and fought in the mind of Gene.

At the beginning of this novel Gene is very "Ignorant" of his heart. He constantly lies, not only to others but also to him self. Finny on the other hand is a very honest person, he never lies about anything to make him sound or feel better about hims

Gene is also very jealous of Finny. Gene's feelings of jealousy wouldn't have been a major problem, but when anger and jealousy are lurking in the same domain, they prove to be a deadly combination. Gene envious of Finny's ability to be a non-conformist and not care what anyone thought of him. Once Finny went as far as to wear a pink shirt, in an era where pink worn by males suggests that they are gay , this really shows what a strong character Finny has. Gene on the other hand is a definite conformist, he is constantly striving to be seen as great by others. This is why when Finny brakes the school one hundred yards free style record without any training Gene cannot understand why Finny whishes to keep it quiet.

Gene does enter the war, Gene says that he killed his enemy at school, I believe this enemy not to be Finny but Gene's "ignorant heart." he realizes that Brinker was wrong about how wars are created, Gene now knows that wars are created by "something ignorant in the human heart." Gene has overcome his own "ignorant heart", and has become Finny, all his hate, fear, jealousy and anger are now gone from him, Finny has taken them with him to his grave.

Gene's admission to being responsible for Finny's fall hurts Finny so much that he refuses to listen to him, so Gene is forced to lie to him. Gene tells Finny that it was a "blind impulse" and nothing personal. Finny dies at the end of the novel due to a fall down the marble stairs, this ru

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Approximate Word count = 983
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English