Throughout the novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses the war to symbolize Gene’s journey as he deals with his internal struggles with hatred towards Finny, and confusion in himself. In the beginning of the story, Gene is ignorant towards his internal struggles as he becomes jealous of Finny. Similarly, the war is not acknowledged by Finny, which is evident when he states, “the fat old men who don’t want us crowding them out of their jobs. They’ve made it all up. There isn’t any food shortage, for instance” (115). Finny pretends the war is not real, in the same way that Gene acts as if his rage towards Finny is normal and justified. Gene uses ignorance towards his own intentions just like Finny uses ignorance towards the war, as a way of dealing with their problems by pretending they are not there. …show more content…
Why do you think I kept saying there wasn’t any war all winter? I was going to keep on saying it until two seconds after I got a letter... saying ‘You can enlist with us” (190). During the climax of the story, both Gene’s rage and the war are accepted as real things. The war is finally viewed as a legitimate issue by characters in the book, just as Gene comes to the realization that he really does have a jealousy issue, that caused him to do something he would regret immediately. Finally, when Gene finally forgives himself and moves on, he and his classmates come to terms with the fact that they will have to go to war. This is shown when Brinker’s dad comments, “[y]ou want to serve, that’s all. It’s your greatest moment, greatest privilege, to serve your country... You can do more! A lot