Gene is introduced to Brinker's dad, and says that he has joined the Navy. Brinker has joined the Coast Guard, probably part of his scheme to stay out of battle. Brinker's dad is very gung-ho about the military, and gives the boys a speech about having a good military record, and how people will respect them based on what they did for the war.
Brinker obviously doesn't agree. Gene then talks about Finny, and his experience in the war; how Finny was the only person he knew whose character was safe from being corrupted by the war, and how his friendship with Finny prepared him for his own experience.
In lieu of Finny, he has finally adopted Finny's way of looking at things, and some of Finny's personality and rebelliousness. Finny means a lot to him and still influences him, and Gene is finally able to appreciate his friend for all that he was, and make peace with him. War finally, and literally, takes over Devon; it has arrived, and Gene is more than ready to leave. The campus becomes unrecognizable to him, with all the military gear; since the peace of the summer before is completely dead and definitely a thing of the past, it is easy for him to say goodbye to it and continue on to his adult life.
The other symbol of his carefree youth was Finny, and he died just as his glorious summer was about to disappear forever because of the war; Gene has nothing left to cling to of his childhood, so it is time for him to go. Would Gene have been able to go off to war, and would war have been able to encroach upon Devon, if Finny was still there? The war would have necessarily divided Finny and Gene, since Gene could serve and Finny could not; their old friendship would have ended anyway, and Gene would finally be taken over by order and discipline, and severed from his old friend's rebelliousness.
However, Finny doesn't really die in Gene; as Gene says, " Phineas created an atmosphere in which I continued now to live," and he takes up Finny's way of looking at the world and choosing what to accept and what to let go. Because Finny is gone, Gene does have to let some of Finny's spirit reside in him. The general explanation for Leper's change comes out in one of the book's closing paragraphs.
Gene speaks about how everyone "at some point found something in themselves pitted violently against something in the world around them" And, as a result of this overwhelming conflict with some great force, "the simplicity and unity of their characters broke and they were not the same again. But, does this same thing happen to Gene? It is not clear; though Gene has been through a great deal, with his relationship with Finny and Finny's death as well, it seems like he has adopted some of the coping mechanisms that Finny had, and is not as touched by this kind of struggle.
For a time, though, Finny's death is the force that floors him; maybe he is not exactly the same after this happens, though Gene tries his best to say that Finny lives in him, so he will get by okay. But, at the same time, Gene admits that he had broken Finny's "harmonious and natural unity"; if Finny too had lost this, can Gene ever hope to retain it? And what does this mean about Gene?
Are any of these really the truth? Indeed, Gene seems reluctant to speak directly and honestly about the accident, and say definitively what his motivation was and why.
And maybe this isn't something Gene will ever know; as he admits in the book, there are a great number of things that he doesn't know about himself, that he would like to never find out. This could be one of them, and could be the reason why Gene admits fault for the accident, but won't really search within himself for why he did it. But, if Finny and Gene also let the incident rest, then Gene might feel this is a good enough reason to let the past alone, and not experience the pain all over again.
One of the final lessons, that Gene goes into on the last page, is how futile hate and fear both are; he cites Mr. Ludsbury , Brinker, and Leper as being misguided and losing a great deal in citing their own enemies and trying their best to defend against them. Gene says he has already killed his own enemy, and therefore has gotten rid of his hate and his fear.
Gene's enemy must have been himself, or at least the part of himself that was so quick to lash out and hurt other people. He believes that he has buried his darker side, and from what the reader can tell, maybe he has. Hopefully Finny's influence is as strong with him as he insists, and he will never again let himself slip into carelessly harming someone who is almost part of himself.
The Question and Answer section for A Separate Peace is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. Where does the author get the title for his novel? A separate peace is a nation's agreement to cease military hostilities with another even though the former country had previously entered into a military alliance with other states that remain at war with the latter country.
This of course becomes How does gene change during the novel? Gene has a definite dark side lurking beneath the surface, though he appears to be a good, honest person in his everyday life. The book is spawned by a later visit to Devon, and of his strong memories and lingering feelings about what happened in The night of the second fall, Gene suffers a kind of emotional breakdown that recalls Leper's hysterical hallucinations.
For example, as Gene lurks outside the infirmary trying to see Finny, he resists an irrational impulse to steal the doctor's car. Later, when he spots Finny and the doctor inside the room, he imagines absurd conversations and weirdly comical remarks that bring him — like Leper in Vermont — to laughter and tears. Later that night, Gene suffers from "double vision" — a kind of hallucination that also recalls Leper's breakdown.
The gym, for example, seems familiar, yet "innately strange," a "totally unknown building" with a significance that Gene cannot fathom. The whole world, in fact — and especially the gym which he associates with Finny — seems apart from Gene, as if everything around him is real, but he is a dream. Clearly, Gene's nightmare vision of himself comes from the knowledge of his guilt — and the separation that he now feels from Finny. Indeed, Gene fears that he no longer exists, and so can never be a part of Finny's world again.
Even his attempt to visit Finny that night in the infirmary room seems to prove this beyond a doubt. Angry at the sight of Gene, Finny tumbles out of bed. Even in good faith, it seems, Gene cannot help but cause Finny to fall. Yet, ironically, Gene now finally if obliquely offers Finny the apology he should have given in the summer — "I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Like Leper, who must retreat into the delusional safety of his Vermont dining room, Gene seeks refuge for the rest of the night in the "sheltered" corner of a stadium ramp. On his way to the infirmary the next morning, Gene tries to regain his emotional balance by comparing his own "brief burst of animosity" with the enormous atrocities of war.
But his rationalizations break down as he nears the room — and the reality of Finny. Still, Gene's last conversation with Finny in the infirmary expresses all that has so far gone unspoken between them. In anguished disappointment, Finny confesses his efforts to enlist, and, in turn, Gene finally says the truth he feels about his friend — that Finny would be no good in the war, because his natural impulses point him always toward friendship and sports, not animosity and fighting.
This insight about Finny seems to have been hidden within Gene's consciousness throughout the novel, and only the open revelation of his own guilt — the truth about himself — can bring forth the truth about Finny. As Gene speaks the words, then, he knows their importance as the proof of his friendship — the expression of his deep understanding of Finny, and even his love for him. Gene recounts a story about a fire back home and then says that he was thinking a lot about Finny and the accident while at home.
He now tells Finny that he deliberately shook the limb to make him fall. Finny refuses to believe him and grows furious. Gene realizes that he has injured Finny further with his confession and that he must take back his words, though he cannot do it now.
Finny says that he will return to Devon by Thanksgiving. This bizarre act symbolizes the extent to which Gene has blurred, and continues to blur, the line that separates his own identity from that of his best friend. Moreover, while becoming Finny allows Gene to escape his own guilty conscience, it also enables him to eradicate the feelings at the base of that guilt. Gene feels guilty about the accident because he knows how envious he was of Finny and cannot help but think that this envy somehow influenced his actions, even if only on a subconscious level.
By dressing up as Finny, however, Gene purges himself of this envy by becoming the object of it. His life altered forever by the accident, Finny seems to need something to latch onto, and he latches onto his friendship with Gene. The relationship becomes the center of his life, especially once he returns to Devon in later chapters. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Themes Motifs Symbols. Summary Chapter 5.
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