Miller 1

Lilly Miller

Mr. Daniels

Senior English

18 November 2021

A Separate Peace

Have you ever assigned unintended meaning to things that were said or done around you?

The book we read in class was A Separate Peace it was written by John Knowles published in

1959. It was following boys named Gene and his friend Finny in 1942 during WW2. There was a

lot of symbolism you could go into depth within this book, and that's what I did.

One good demonstration of symbolism is when Finny had his fall, and it was during the

season Fall/Autumn. This happening also shows the change between Finny and Gene and the

way they start to mature and change their ways. Gene “mature” and change for the worst, finding

out the way his brain actually works. A good quote from Gene is: “I never killed anybody and I

never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever

put on a uniform; I killed my enemy. Only Phineas never was afraid, only Phineas never hated

anyone” (Knowles 196). His enemy was the one person who really trust him. I guess Gene took

the phrase “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” a little too surreal.

As well as that the tree practically stayed the same throughout the whole book, being a

huge part of Finny and Genes’ “friendship”. But as we read we see how Gene our main character

changed a lot throughout the book with the tree staying constant. The Tree also changes from

beginning a good thing to Finny and Gene turned to a bad thing because of the fall. A good first

quote is “ Any one of them might have been the one I was looking for. It had loomed in my

memory as a huge long spike dominating the riverbank, forbidding as an artillery piece, high as

the beanstalk.” (Knowles 5)

 Miller 2
The biggest one to me is the war is a symbol of the war between Gene and Finny, Finny

wants to believe the war is fake because he can’t serve. He also wants to think that what

happened between him and Gene at the tree is a lie and that Gene didn’t shake the branch. But in

reality, he knows the war is real he knows Gene shook the branch. “ And I thought we were

competitors! It was so ludicrous I wanted to cry. If Phineas had been sitting here in the pool of

guilt, how would he have felt, what would he have done? He would have told me the truth”

(Knowles 30). Gene was so jealous of Finny, his best friend, that it got the best of him and he

caused harm to him. Finny didn’t do anything on purpose to ever hurt Gene.

In conclusion, there is a lot of symbolism shown in this book. Gene let his emotions get

the best of him and it showed out throughout. He shook the branch on purpose out of jealously. If

we could point out symbolism in real life things we see and hear would be way more in-depth.