Summary (Magill's Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
With its publication in the United States in 1960 (it was first published in England), John Knowles’s short novel A Separate Peace became an instant success with young readers. Within that year, the book was granted three awards: the first William Faulkner Foundation Award, the Rosenthal Award of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and the National Association of Independent Schools Award.
The novel has a simple story line presented initially in the first-person voice, but it quickly modifies to a dual view of events as experienced in a flashback view of incidents that occurred fifteen years before the opening scene, coupled with a mature assessment of those incidents. This combination of narrative voices gives the tale the immediacy of an eyewitness account while providing the author wide-ranging possibilities for omniscient commentary on the larger meaning of events.
The main setting of the novel is the Devon School in the hills of New Hampshire during the summer session of 1942 and the academic year that follows. The action focuses on a small group of boys completing their junior year by taking accelerated summer courses to allow them the extra time they will need as seniors to participate in training activities readying them to join the armed forces at war in Europe and Asia. The war and their proximity to participation in it are sustained factors in the minds of the boys, though they feign a youthful indifference to its threat. Fear is their constant unacknowledged companion, fear of the unknown horrors that lie ahead and fear of their inability to conduct themselves well in battle.
Though they would not likely consider it as such, these boys are already engaged in a battle in the quiet halls of Devon. This is their battle with some of the many fears that teenagers must face while growing to maturity: fear of not belonging or being displaced in the affections of one’s friends; the proud fear of loss of status, of not performing up to others’ expectations; even fear of surrendering to irrational hatreds caused by jealousy and to the latent violence that each boy senses within himself and others. Knowles leads the reader through skirmishes of this battle by detailing the experiences of two boys in this group, Gene Forrester and Phineas.
Gene is an intelligent, cautious boy raised by a supportive southern family. He has enjoyed three academically successful years at Devon and is respected by his professors and classmates as a scholar and athlete. In contrast to Gene’s moderation in all things, Phineas, his Bostonian roommate, known to all as Finny, is possessed of a uniquely free spirit. Finny, who lives always for the exhilaration of the moment, is a peerless athlete of perfect physical coordination. He views life as a great playing field on which all are engaged in a romping game of friendly competition and everyone is a winner. With these two characters, Knowles presents the...
(The entire section is 1210 words.)
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Summary (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
The entire story of A Separate Peace is narrated by the main character, Gene Forrester. Every action in the novel is presented through his eyes, as Forrester looks back upon the summer and fall of 1942 from the perspective of 1957. Gene Forrester, therefore, is a thirty-one-year-old man looking back at the year 1942, when he was sixteen years old at the Devon School.
Gene Forrester has come to Devon from the South, although Knowles never specifically identifies Forrester’s home state. At Devon, Forrester is exposed to a distinctly New England environment as personified by three characters at the school: Brinker Hadley, Elwin “Leper” Lepellier, and Phineas (called “Finny,” with no last name given). There is not much action in A Separate Peace, as the novel primarily explores the highly complex psychological bond that is established between Forrester and Finny. Whereas Forrester is an exemplary student, Finny is indifferent to his classroom activities and does not envy Forrester’s superiority in his studies. Finny is, however, a superior athlete, and Forrester is clearly envious of, yet attracted to, his friend’s physical prowess.
The first four chapters of A Separate Peace are perhaps the most important in the novel. While he is drawn to Finny, especially as Finny possesses a carefree attitude toward everything around him, Forrester feels compelled to compete with his friend: Finny wins the Galbraith Football Trophy and the Contact Sports Award, so Forrester aims at becoming the head of his class on graduation day, winning the Ne Plus Ultra Scholastic Achievement Citation. Vying with Finny in this way, and in many others, Forrester is still not content. He wishes to be Finny’s athletic equal, which...
(The entire section is 721 words.)
Summary (Masterplots, Fourth Edition)
In 1958, Gene Forrester returns to his preparatory school, the Devon School, and reflects on the events that occurred there fifteen years prior. His memories start with the summer session of 1942 and end after a tragic event during the 1943 school year. Central to Gene’s reflections is his relationship with his roommate and best friend Phineas, who most people affectionately call “Finny.”
As a student, Gene is a far more dedicated and successful than Finny, but he feels threatened by Finny’s athleticism. Gene also envies his friend for several reasons, including his honesty and his ability to get away with almost anything: School administrators rarely punish Finny since they are quelled by his sincere charm. Gene also proves subject to Finny’s charisma. The two often flout rules together, and in one instance they bike to the ocean. While there, Finny tells Gene that he considers Gene his best friend; Gene says nothing in return.
The summer of 1942 appears peaceful, and the students seem somehow apart from the rest of the world, which is plagued by the effects of World War II. On Finny’s initiative, some students form the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. The society’s members engage in daring actions, such as jumping from an enormous tree into the river below. Gene and Finny jump together, and Finny considers this jump symbolic of the solidarity of their friendship. Meanwhile, Gene’s feelings of jealousy toward Finny grow; Gene feels irritated by Finny dragging him to Suicide Society meetings every night, especially when Gene wants to spend the evenings studying. Gene suspects that Finny, who is already more athletically gifted than he is, wants to sabotage Gene’s academic studies so Gene will no longer best Finny in any way.
One night, Gene tells Finny he does not want to attend the society’s meeting and expects a poor reaction from Finny. Instead, Finny simply tells Gene not to come along; he assumes Gene’s scholastic abilities are natural and apologizes for preventing him from studying. Confident that Finny’s intentions are pure, Gene decides to attend the meeting after all. At the meeting, Gene and Finny again climb the tree and prepare to jump. Gene’s knees bend, the limb they are standing on trembles, and Finny plummets to the ground. The impact completely shatters the star athlete’s...
(The entire section is 966 words.)
Chapter 1 Summary
Gene Forrester returns to the Devon School fifteen years after his matriculation. He is surprised that the school seems more "sedate" and "shiny" than he remembers it. He attributes this observation to the fact that when he was a student at Devon, there had been a war going on. It is a dreary November day, and Gene feels "fear's echo," a remembrance of the mood that overshadowed everything in those days. He is surprised to discover that, somewhere along the way, the fear has left him, without his even noticing. There are two places Gene particularly wants to see again; the first of these is the foyer of the First Academy Building. Gene notes the hardness of the marble floor in the foyer and the staircase leading down to it. It is...
(The entire section is 561 words.)
Chapter 2 Summary
As a consequence of having missed dinner, Gene and Finny are visited the next morning by Mr. Prud'homme, a substitute teacher for the summer. When questioned about their whereabouts the night before, Finny blithely explains, with "scatterbrained eloquence," that he and Gene had been swimming in the river, had engaged in a wrestling match, and had stopped to watch the sunset. His manner is so earnest and his excuses so preposterous that Mr. Prud'homme is won over despite himself. Even Finny's confession that they also "just had to jump out of that tree," an act which is more condemning than missing a meal, does not bring down upon the boys the punishment which they probably deserve. Gene is amazed at Finny's uncanny capability...
(The entire section is 640 words.)
Chapter 3 Summary
Finny had practically saved Gene's life by keeping him from falling from the tree, but he had practically lost it for him too, because Gene would never have been up in the tree in the first place but for Finny's influence. The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session is an instant success, with friends of Gene and Finny signing up to be "trainees." Finny decrees that the Society should meet every night, and that he and Gene should open each meeting by jumping from the tree. Gene, though he abhors the ritual, never considers not jumping, because he does not want to lose face with Phineas.
Finny, who loves sports, is quite disgusted with the athletic program in the summer, which consists of "a little...
(The entire section is 619 words.)
Chapter 4 Summary
When Gene awakens on the beach the next morning, he realizes that his trigonometry test is going to begin in just a few hours. Finny, however, calculates that there is time for a short swim before leaving, so the boys arrive back at Devon just in time for Gene's test, which he fails. In the afternoon, Finny arranges for the group to play a game of blitzball, and right after dinner, there is a meeting of the Super Suicide Society. That night, as Gene tries desperately to catch up on the work in which he has been falling behind, Finny asks him why he always works so hard, commenting that he must be vying to graduate at the head of the class so that he will be able to make a speech on Graduation Day. Finny's words bring Gene to the...
(The entire section is 528 words.)
Chapter 5 Summary
There is no news about Finny from the infirmary during the following few days, other than the information that one of his legs has been "shattered." Finny's injury has a significant effect on the masters, who seem to feel that it is somehow unfair that a sixteen-year-old, one of the few boys who do not yet have to suffer because of the war, should be struck down in such a manner. Burdened with the knowledge that he had caused the accident, Gene is overcome with guilt, but surprisingly, no one appears to suspect his role in what had happened. One morning, Dr. Stanpole accosts Gene, telling him that Finny is better and "could stand a visitor or two." Dr. Stanpole says that although Finny has endured a "messy break" and will hereafter...
(The entire section is 614 words.)
Chapter 6 Summary
With the beginning of the Winter Session, peace officially deserts Devon. Formality and order replace the easygoing aura of summer, and at the first chapel service, the masters sit in their stalls in front of and at right angles to the student body, as if "they (have) never been away." Continuity is the keynote of the ceremony, although five of the regular teachers are missing because they have gone to war, and it is announced that maids will be unavailable "for the Duration." Gene reflects that the assertion that the traditions of Devon have never been broken is a fallacy; during the summer, "all rules (had been) forgotten." Still, that halcyon time had ended with Phineas's accident, and Gene recognizes that perhaps that tragedy...
(The entire section is 634 words.)
Chapter 7 Summary
After Gene has showered to wash away the sticky residue of the Naguamsett River, Brinker Hadley comes across the hall to visit him. Brinker is nattily dressed, looking like "the standard preparatory school article" in his gray gabardine suit, conservative tie, and cordovan shoes. Making himself at home, Brinker comments jokingly that Gene must wield quite a bit of influence to have a room all to himself, and he facetiously suggests that Gene must have plotted his roommate's demise to achieve this end. Brinker's playful accusations strike too close to the truth, making Gene very uncomfortable. Gene tries to change the subject, suggesting that they go down to the Butt Room for a smoke. The Butt Room, a drab, unpleasant place in...
(The entire section is 546 words.)
Chapter 8 Summary
When Gene enters the room, Phineas comments immediately on his grungy attire, and Gene tells him that he has been shoveling snow on the railroad. Reaching for a pair of crutches, Finny "vault(s)" across the room to his cot and complains when he sees it is not made up. Gene, a little irritated at his roommate's attitude, reminds him that there are no maids because there is a war on. Gene makes the bed up for Finny and falls asleep while Finny, as is his habit, is still talking. In the morning, Finny demands to hear once again why there are no maids. Brinker Hadley bounds into the room, enthusiastically asking Gene if he is ready to sign up before he notices that Finny is back. After greeting Finny, Brinker "curl(s) his lip" at...
(The entire section is 792 words.)
Chapter 9 Summary
Although Gene does not ever believe Finny's assertion that "the whole production of World War II (is) a trick of the eye manipulated by a bunch of calculating fat old men," he is drawn into Finny's "vision of peace" nonetheless. The happiness he derives from the delusion is so great that he is not even shaken when Leper Lepellier, an unlikely candidate, becomes the first to enlist among his classmates. Early in January, a recruiter from the United States ski troops had come to Devon and shown a film depicting "the cleanest image of war (Gene) had ever seen." Leper, who will shortly turn eighteen and lose his chance to choose the branch of the military in which he will serve, is enchanted by the images of "skiers in white shrouds"...
(The entire section is 645 words.)
Chapter 10 Summary
By the time Gene was to have become a soldier, the war would be in its closing stages, and his "chief war memory" would be traveling back and forth "through unknown parts of America" in an endless "nighttime ricochet." The first of these excursions is his trip to Leper's home in the austere, frozen landscape of upstate Vermont. The Lepellier home is not far from the nearest town, but as there are no taxis or other means of transportation there, Gene must walk the last leg of his journey. When he arrives at his destination, he finds that Leper is waiting for him, standing in one of the "long and narrow windows" that adorn the front of the house. When Gene enters the doorway, Leper beckons him to the dining room which he says,...
(The entire section is 677 words.)
Chapter 11 Summary
After his disturbing encounter with Leper, Gene wants only to see Phineas, who has managed to create for himself a world without conflict. When he gets back to Devon, he finds Finny in the midst of a raucous snowball fight, frolicking in the farthest northern reaches of the campus with a group of classmates, "the cream of the school, the lights and leaders of the senior class." Gene, not wanting to be questioned about Leper, tries to escape discreetly, but he is quickly initiated into the game by a snowball thrown at his head by Phineas. The fight deteriorates into hilarious confusion as, following Finny's lead, all loyalties are abandoned. As the teams disintegrate, the fight ends "in the only way possible": everyone gangs up on...
(The entire section is 975 words.)
Chapter 12 Summary
Everyone reacts with complete presence of mind in the wake of Phineas's fall. Gene wants desperately to be among those ministering to Finny, but discreetly hangs back, knowing that he was the cause of his friend's precipitous reaction. Dr. Stanpole is summoned and, after examining Finny, arranges to have him transported to the infirmary. Before he leaves, the doctor tells Gene that Finny's leg is broken again, but that it is a simple fracture this time.
Gene makes his way across the darkened campus to the infirmary and crouches in the grass beneath the window of Finny's room, listening to the murmur of voices coming from within. As the minutes pass, Gene thinks about the people inside, recalling each of their...
(The entire section is 738 words.)
Chapter 13 Summary
In June, the war comes to Devon in a concrete way when the Far Common is donated to the war effort. The campus will host a Parachute Riggers' school, and troops arrive in jeeps and heavy trucks, all painted in olive drab. No one has ever accused Gene for being responsible for what had happened to Phineas; in fact, no one talks about Phineas at all. As he watches the Headmaster welcome the assembled troops, Gene takes note of the beautiful New England day that surrounds them. Despite the trappings of war which have encroached upon the school, in Gene's mind peace still "lays on Devon like a blessing, the summer's peace," carried over from the year before.
Brinker's dad arrives at the school and asks to meet Brinker...
(The entire section is 662 words.)