A Momentary, Illusory, Special, and Separate Peace.

I don’t know what it is about this book, but I loved it. Maybe it’s because A Separate Peace related to this time period closer than any other book, or maybe because it took on a new perspective that the others couldn't reach. The fact that this is the last book might have contributed too. Either way, A Separate Peace became my favorite book of this summer right from chapter one. It’s a sad, adventurous, lively story with vivid characters that came to life right on the page. Honestly, I could find hardly anything bad about this story. It was real, it was descriptive, and it brought out the emotions of the characters in the reader. At least, that’s what it did to me.

One of the things I liked about this book was the way it was written. Gene is telling the story of his previous life at Devon, reflecting on the events of fifteen years ago. In this way, the reader is able to examine the developments of Devon in the early 1940’s alongside Gene himself. This gives the reader some insight on the story and a bigger idea on the meaning of various things, like themes and symbols. This also helped me to see the importance of various people and places of the book.

The setting that stuck out to me most was one of the first mentioned, the tree. It was where Phineas and Gene’s friendship was first established, where Phineas’s life was changed forever, and where we find Gene fifteen years later, reminiscing about his high school years. The tree also works as a major symbol of the book, symbolizing the very things that take place at its trunk, mostly Gene and Finny’s relationship. Like their relationship, the tree strong and powerful, and brings out courage in those brave enough to take it on. But it’s also a bit ragged, unsteady at times, and, as we see later, scarred, just as that friendship becomes. Both, however, last, no matter how broken.

It’s a sad fact of life that my favorite character of this book had to die. But I guess it was for the best, after all, everything he might have hoped of doing, had become a distant dream he once had. However, Phineas was a delightful and inspiring character, despite his short life. I found his personality to be the thing that struck me as most peculiar about him. He was straightforward, sincere, respected, and most of all, he was honest. Phineas hardly ever lied, and yet almost never got in trouble. I’m with Gene in envying him for that. When I thought about Phineas’s character and his relationship to Gene, I was vaguely reminded of Tom Sawyer. Both were able to take charge, bend around the rules, and generally just gain admiration. And both had a loyal sidekick, a best friend, whom they took along on all their adventures, even if forcibly, yet trusted them with everything they had. Phineas demonstrated the innocence of life during war, and the ability to find peace in the harshest of times, and that’s why I admire him.

There are a lot of themes you can pull from A Separate Peace. The one I saw most clearly was the theme of friendship and trust, and the impact of both. From the beginning, we can see that Gene’s friendship with Phineas isn’t too solid, mainly based on adoration and want of acceptance. But Phineas immediately starts feeding off their friendship, and soon considers Gene as his best friend. Gene, however, remains tentative and cautious, and begins questioning Phineas’s true intentions. These doubts lead to Phineas’s accident, and eventually his death. Of course, Gene does except their friendship before Phineas’s death, but maybe if Gene could have had a little more trust in Phineas, he would’ve fallen at all.

There’s one last thing I want to mention in this book: blitzball. The very idea creating a game on the spot like Phineas did was just amazing to me. But it wasn’t the creativeness that caught my intention. As I was reading about this crazy game, I could see the innocence of those boys playing, laughing, having a good time, and the meaning of “a separate peace” really sunk in. I read about it, and it seemed as if the game, the boys, the Summer Session, the entire class year, were all set apart, contained in a sort of bubble. All around them war was happening, preparations and drafting’s surrounded the seniors, effects of war, sadness and hunger, troubled homes and little ones, but inside that bubble, peace remained. A separate peace. :)