A Separate Peace Book Report

1) The main character of the book, A Separate Peace, is Gene Forrester. He is in the senior class at Devon. He is widely known as the smart student who is always on time to class and always does his school work. Gene is a good choice as the main character of this book, but if the author would have chosen Finny as the main character, the book would have been different. Finny leaves Devon for an amount of time because he breaks his leg. Therefore, if he was the main character, the book would not have been placed at Devon the whole time, it would have been placed at Finny's house for a short amount of time. The reader would have also been able to see what Finny was thinking when he first broke his leg and when he did it a second time. The two characters are similar, in the fact that, they both would not be where they are today without their friendship. They are also both very competitive with each other. Gene and Finny are different, in the fact that, Gene is shy while Finny is very outgoing. Finny is focused on athletics while Gene is focused on academics.

2) One theme of A Separate Peace is denial. Denial is evident in both the lives of Gene and Finny. Gene denies that he hurt Finny even though he
knows he pushed Finny out the tree. This theme is shown on page 66 when Gene says," I couldn't say anything to this sincere, drugged apology for having suspected the truth. He was never going to accuse me. It was only a feeling he had, and at this moment he must have been formulating a new commandment in his personal decalogue: Never accuse a friend of a crime if you only have a feeling he did it." Gene is trying to make himself feel better about the situation by telling himself that there is no way Finny could suspect him. Finny denies that the war is even going on. An example of Finny denying the war is happening is on page 115 when he says, "Do you really think that the United States of America is in a state of war with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan?" At the end of the book, Finny tells us that he has been denying the war all along because he knew he could not fight in the war because of his leg.

3) An important decision that Gene has to make is whether to tell Finny he pushed him off the tree and broke his leg, or just not tell him and let the rumors keep floating around. This decision is so important because either way it could break the very important friendship between the two boys. Gene never really gets to decide whether he wants to tell Finny because he is forced by Brinker to tell him in front of all their friends. It all works out in the end because Finny eventually forgives Gene before he dies, and Gene can have that peace of mind while trying to get over the death of his best friend.

4) One major conflict going on in A Separate Peace is the war.
The war has affected many people in the book, one being Leper, a student and friend of Genes at Devon. The war causes Leper to come home traumatized, causing everyone to believe he has gone crazy. An example of this is shown on page 172 when Gene says, "I kept quiet. To myself, however, I made a number of swift, automatic calculations: that Leper was no threat, no one would ever believe Leper; Leper was deranged, he was not of sound mind and if people couldn't make out their own wills when not in sound mind certainly they couldn't restify in something like this." Gene believes that Leper is so crazy that he will either not tell Brinker the truth about Finny's fall, or no one will believe
him.