Vickey Ho

Period 2

10 April 2015

Mrs. Griffin

“For peace is indivisible” :Conquering an Internal War

A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, tells a story about two high school best

friends, Gene and Phineas, during the early years of World War Ⅱ. Because of Phineas’s

charming and unique personality, Gene becomes jealous, which in turn establishes a resentment

toward him, leading to unintentional and reckless actions. He develops a fear of being inferior

and attempts to find his separate peace. Through Gene’s jealousy of Phineas and insecurity,

Knowles demonstrates the necessity of revealing one’s true identity consists of conquering an

internal war with oneself.

Although the setting takes place in WWⅡ, the primary war ironically dwells within

Gene’s personal conflict. Gene, an intelligent, introverted student, develops enmity for his

athletic and unique best friend, Phineas. Throughout high school, Gene stands in the shadow of

Phineas, and creates an idea that Phineas envies him of his intellect. Gene convinces himself,

“We were even after all, even in enmity. The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all.” (54).

Gene makes himself feel superior, instead of accepting his flaws. Gene strongly loathes the idea

of being under Phineas, as a result to forming negative judgments about him. Unfortunately, he

has to remind himself of his abilities that Phineas does not contain to help himself feel secure.

Gene copes his resentment by developing a strategy; he tells himself that Phineas must feel the

same way about his academic ability. Gene lets himself believe that Phineas bears an evil side to

him. He assumes Phineas attempts to sabotage his studies which drives him to do reckless
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actions. Gene feels less ashamed with these thoughts running in his mind. When Gene and

Phineas leave to attend The Suicide Society meeting, he notices, “ He had never been jealous of

me for a second. Now I knew there was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was

not of the same quality as he.” (59). Although it apparently seems Gene’s jealousy toward

Phineas stops and he accepts the truth, he actually realizes that Phineas was always superior than

him, which motivates Gene’s personal envy toward him to grow. Gene notices the obstacle he

faces; Phineas is morally better than him, therefore they can never be even. He allows his

insecurity drive him into feeling the worse emotions toward his loyal best friend. Unfortunately,

it causes him to jounce the limb, making Phineas lose his balance and fall. The war in the novel

consists of Gene, motivated by his insecurities and jealousy.

Gene’s personal war occurs from his enmity of Phineas, and his search for his authentic

self. When Phineas falls from the tree, Gene feels a vast amount of guilt. He believes that

Phineas is too noble to blame him for the fall. One evening, Gene decides to put on Phineas’

clothing and looks at the mirror thinking, “I had no idea why this gave me such intense relief, but

it seemed, standing there in Finny’s triumphant shirt, that I would never stumble through the

confusions of my own character again.” (62). Because Gene stood there next to Phineas during

his fall, he believes that he caused it. His decision to wear Phineas’ clothes was to hide his

malicious character and stop the guilt. Gene denies the fact that he ruined Phineas’ athletic

opportunities. He becomes confused of what he has become and changes his identity. Putting on

Phineas’ clothes makes him feel different and less guilty. Gene has an “intense relief” from all of

his regret. However, Gene still holds little remorse inside of him and continues to deny his

actions, because of the consequences that will come. Ultimately, Gene notices that his greatest

fear exists in himself. When Phineas comes back to Devon, their high school, he asks Gene to
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replace him in sports. Gene agrees and says, “I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring

sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part

of Phineas.” (85). Though it seems as an act of kindness, Gene actually accepts as a form of

getting out of reality. Gene uses Phineas’ training as a sense of finding his purpose. Phineas also

trains Gene to ignore reality. Their friendship is codependence, a relationship that fulfills each

other’s needs. Phineas and Gene ignore their responsibilities. Unfortunately, Gene stops finding

himself when he becomes a part of Phineas. Gene molds his character to match Phineas’, and

loses sight of himself. Not only does the primary war include Gene’s emotions, but also his

search to find his identity.

The unfortunate event Gene encounters helps him reveal his separate peace. After high

school at Devon, Gene enlists in the navy and comes to the ending of his internal war. He comes

to realization of the end of the conflict and states, “Because my war ended before I ever put on

my uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.” (204). Gene

discerns that enemies have to be fought and understands that his enemy was his own inner

demons. Unluckily, he discovers himself after the death of his best friend. In order to find

himself, he loses the only person he admires. Phineas’ heart became a part of him and he does

not have any war with himself anymore. His jealousy and insecurity gets eliminated from

Phineas’ great spirit of heart and moves on from his old self. Gene reflects his past at Devon and

comes to the conclusion: “All of them, all except Phineas, constructed at infinite cost to

themselves these Maginot Lines against this enemy they thought they saw across the frontier,

this enemy who never attacked that way—if he ever attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy.”

(204). Gene admits his false assumptions of Phineas’ evil side and the true enemy of his war was

within himself. He recalls Phineas’ inability to notice the notions of enmity, which caused his
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destruction. Phineas lived different than everyone else. All of them drew “Maginot Lines”

against enemies in WWⅡ, not realizing the enemy was themselves. Gene believes there was a

natural curse that causes everyone, except Phineas, to be full of hatred. Wars were created by

something ignorant in the human heart, not by generations and their stupidities. Gene’s internal

war ended and he found his true self through the death of his best friend, Phineas.

Ultimately, in the novel, A Separate Peace, Knowles shows the need of conquering a

personal war within oneself to find his or hers true self. Gene begins with having jealousy toward

his best friend, Phineas, and feeling insecure. He develops more enmity when he realizes they

will never be even and Phineas will be better. However, Gene uses Phineas to ignore reality and

finding himself. Unfortunately, the death of his best friend helps him find himself. Gene notices

that everyone, excluding Phineas, fight wars with enemies, not knowing the enemy is

themselves.