A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace
“A Separate Peace,” by John Knowles, relates the adventures that the students of prep school, Devon School, have to experience during World War II. The book is full of stories anddifferent relevant episodes that put in controversy the loyalty and friendship of these students. Gene Forrester, the narrator, and his best friend Phineas are the main characters of the story; theyspent most of their school life together but they both had different personalities. Gene was intellectual and more focused on his academic development, while Phineas’ interests were all linked tophysical activities. Along with them, Elwin Lepellier —also known as “Leper”— becomes a key character in the story as well; due to unfortunate reasons his personality changes drastically bringing a senseof disturbance and mystery into the story.
At the beginning of the story Leper is described as non-athletic student, he is very dreamy and quite. Even though he was older than the rest of his groupof friends, he was still the most innocent one; while his friends played pretty active games, he preferred collecting snails and searching for beaver dens. These qualities of his did not help much inhis preparation for the war; he was already seventeen and sooner to enlist in the military service. Leper was conscious of his unprepared conditions and told Phineas his intentions of jumping from thetree into a river like the senior students do as a part of the training process; “Leper Lepellier has announced his intention to make the leap this very night, to qualify, to save his face at last”(Knowles 57). Nobody believed Leper had any kind of athletic skills and they always put his audacity in doubt. When the time came Leper did not jump, instead, he witnessed a tragic event that affected,principally, Phineas for the rest his life and Gene’s as well. Gene could not avoid feeling guilty for his best friend’s accident which meant the end of Phineas sport life; “it was one of his legs,...