Worldview in John Knowles’ A Separate Peace

by Shawn Hassen

Theme: The Power of Fear (to the Exclusion of Peace)

To begin a discussion of worldview in A Separate Peace, we have to start with the setting of the novel which highlights the power of fear. In the midst of war, the boys at Devon School react very differently to the chaotic world around them. Some boys respond to the fear of war with an intense energy and commanding drive to enlist, serve, debate, start organizations, or head up councils and clubs. Some respond to the fear of the war by escaping--by creating their own private worlds of disbelief, pretend, humor, or fun. Some respond to the fear of the war with worry, anxiety, suspicion, jealousy, and anger. Whatever their approach, none of the characters have a “peace” for which Knowles suggests they long.

Theme: Human Nature

Finny, symbolized by the purer, cleaner Devon River, is the character with an implied pure heart and motive, in contrast to Gene, represented by the dirty, tortuous Naguamsett. For certain, there is a contrasting character between the two boys. Gene is suspicious, jealous, and two-faced, always brooding and swirling below the surface, while Finny is far more transparent. What you see is what you get in the face of his fun-loving shenanigans. Despite his zeal for defying authority (curiously juxtaposed with a certain naivete), he is a playful character with an “innocence” and genuineness (quite unlike Gene’s duplicity), and his softer nature, much like Leper’s, is crushed by a hardened world.  

While Phineas represents a more innocent human nature, Gene has a hardened, darker core.

His suspicious, jealous nature grows darker and darker as he imagines Finny as a saboteur. He is jealous of Finny’s likeable charisma and uncanny athletic ability, and he convinces himself that Finny wants to take from him the one thing that he, himself, he is good at--his grades and schoolwork. This jealousy and suspicion grow into a quiet hatred that directly wounds Phineas and indirectly kills him.  Through both of these characters, Knowles suggests that humans have both the capacity for goodness and for evil, and within the context of this novel, evil has the ability to be victor.

The Novel’s Correlations/Contrasts to Scripture

Scripture warns of the power of emotions, and fear, in particular, is spoken of repeatedly throughout the Bible as having (like sin) an oppressive, debilitating power. In our natural states, we react with a variety of responses just like the characters in this novel: retreat, anger, escape. Fear is undoubtedly one of the Enemy’s preferred tools of deception and manipulation, so the antidote must be a holy, all-powerful God who promises His protection and peace. In a fallen world, we will always struggle with fear, but Scripture calls us back again and again to Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Nothing earthly—not material possessions, not vengeance, not substances and addictions, not good works, not pleasure and escape—provides us with peace. Only perfect love casts out all fear, so our continued growth in faith, trust, and the Holy Spirit begins to replace fear with peace.

Fear is only one of the many dark emotions and temptations lurking in the human heart since the fall in the Garden of Eden. Some people publicly display their sin, while many others—such as the fictional Gene—work hard to hide or disguise their inner darkness. Humans’ attraction to evil and our interest in performing acts of evil vary tremendously by individual--but Scripture makes clear that every human is sinful. The capacity for evil, be it to commit a violent crime or to steal a friend’s pencil, is in every single human. Therefore, we must give pause when it comes to the characterizations of Gene and Finny. On one level, Gene and Phineas are realistic representations of personalities and relationships in a fallen world. We all are--or have met--people who struggle with insecurities and negative emotions to varying degrees. Some people are genuinely more caring and compassionate and fun loving, while some people are genuinely more jaded, manipulative, mean, or violent. On a deeper level, however, one of these characters is not a true representative of human nature. Knowles makes it easy for students to equate Finny with innocence and purity, but this notion is unbiblical. Since the fall, when Adam and Eve believed the serpent’s lies and disobeyed God, evil entered the world and as Scripture says, everyone and everything is tainted. The only pure heart who has walked the earth was Jesus. His is the only heart with pure and perfect motives. Finny serves as an excellent foil to highlight the darkness in Gene’s heart--but it is important that students not idolize his unrealistically ideal representation.