The primary setting of A Separate Peace is at the Devon School. The exact location of this school is not known in terms of a state, but it is identified as being in the South, sitting between a freshwater and a saltwater stream. The bulk of the story takes place in the years of 1942 through 1944 at the same time as World War II, but the beginning and end of the book consist of Gene looking back on his years at the Devon School 15 years after he had attended it.

A Separate Peace considers two conflicts: man against man and man against himself. Early in the story Gene believes that his problems lie within his best friend Phineas (Finny), but later he realizes that his conflict is internal. Misplaced jealousy, fear, love and hate figh

t for control of Gene's actions. When the dark side of him wins for a brief moment and he pushes Finny out of a tree it ends his man against man conflict and makes Gene realize that Finny's intention has never been to sabotage him. He had only wanted to have a close and meaningful relationship with his best friend, but their relationship was forever scarred by Gene's betrayal. Gene also learns that people destruct themselves all of the time for no reason, believing that others are enemies when they actually are not.. This can be observed in the last lines of the book when Gene states, "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."

The style of A Separate Peace is realistic. It deals with real life dilemmas and is taken from the authors real experiences. The book concerns largely actual situations such as the war and the way schools were grooming young men for combat. It also speaks of the lighthearted summers of youth and their tough education. People also die and go insane in the book. This happens in real life as do horrible accidents that cause death. There is nothing romantic about this. It is also realistic that people have struggles against themselves and misplace their own feelings into others. It would be a fantasy to believe that man's internal struggles always end for the better.

Gene Forrester goes through the ages of 16, 17, and 18 during the course of the story he tells. He is of athletic build and is five feet 8½

Some topics in this essay:
Separate Peace, Gene Finny, Brinker Hadley, Phineas Finny, Devon School, Finny Gene, Gene Forrester, Exeter Academy, Forrester Knowles', Maginot Lines, separate peace, devon school, real experiences, jealousy fear, gene forrester, own feelings, gene looking, real life, athletic build, realizes conflict,