I have come to the end of the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles. By the end of the book Finny dies. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the ending of the book, taking in account that it's a coming of age novel. Like in real life not all conflicts end with a happily ever after, or with the conflict being fully resolved. In the second half of the book Finny returns to Devon and slowly Gene becomes an extension of Finny. Finny can no longer do the things he used to and now he does those things through Gene. Finny and Gene have a difficult time growing up and I believe it's because they hold each other back from seeing what's really going on outside of their school Devon. Finny denies the fact that WW2 is going on and fails to realize that the world isn't full of peace and joy. Maybe he wanted to be isolated from that and create his own separate peace where no war took place in. As they both get wrapped up in their own world reality hits them. Brinker brings them together to make Finny realize what really happened the night he fall of the tree. There he realizes that Gene was the one that shook him off he runs off mad falling on the stairs and breaking his leg once more. Everyone thinking that he would be o.k, he dies when Dr.Stanpole was operating his leg. Before he dies he forgives Gene although I have questions about whether he truly forgave Gene or just forced himself to forgive him because losing his friendship would cause him a greater pain.
By the end of the book to me it's unclear what Gene's prospective of the world is. By the end of the book he realizes that there's a war going on, a war that he will soon be a part of after all the time he spend refusing to believe it. I truly believe that all this time he was aware of that fact, he just didn't want to believe it because Finny didn't want to believe it. Once he admitted it it wasn't a big shock for him because the war he was truly fighting was over. The war between himself, thinking it was against Finny. There was never a war between Finny and him. Maybe it was the fact that Finny was genuinely innocent. Maybe it was because of his disarming personality. Finny never had a enemy he was the exception to Genes theory that everyone in life encounters an enemy. Someone to fight with to get the childish idea that the world is a peaceful place.Through the story Gene was able to find himself although Finny would always be part of him.
What I also found interesting is that the book didn't just end with Genes theory of life, but possibly with what Finny's theory could have been or at least what Gene thought Finny represented. At the end of the story Gene mentions how Finny was never afraid, never hated any one. When everyone had an enemy. Perhaps he was the hope that over time people would evolve into not having to see an enemy to fight against and become better people. Maybe there is a hope that there will be a world full of peace.
I found this to be a good book because it ends with the character Gene still growing as a character. Coming up with these perplexed theories about the world. This book has two characters where for most of the book they coexist. But yet they have a total different outlook on life. Even though Finny died he will forever be part of Gene. this book has taught me that even when you pass your coming of age point there are more questions you have about the world. You keep building on to the theories you have made so far. So in actuality there is never an end to your coming of age. Once you realize what is really happening in the real world, you grow wiser and the ideas or theories you once had can change over the course of time.
