A_Separate_Peace

A Separate Peace In times of war, people and societies change to adapt to the lifestyle war brings with it. In John Knowles’ A Separate Peace the characters must adapt to the lifestyle brought forth by World War II. Some make it through these times better than others and some just don’t make it at all. This brings me to my reasoning for the theme of this novel; “survival of the fittest”. From the beginning of this novel it is made abundantly clear that Phineas and Gene are the fittest. In chapter one Phineas is described as “...the best athlete in the school” with “a strong neck in and uninterrupted, unemphatic unity of strength.”(8) Clearly Phineas is the fittest physically. His physical build and superior athletic ability give him that advantage over everyone else enabling him to survive. Then there is Gene, who is also a good athlete but is no Finny. Gene couldn’t be “just good but exceptional” in his academics (46). He has to stand out for his achievements. His just being good at school would not make him even with Phineas. Gene wants “to be head of the class, valedictorian.”(43) Gene sees it that Finny is the best fittest, gene, phineas, war, novel, best, just, good, survival, school, people, out, make, finny, athlete, adapt, times, therefore, survive, stand, something, separate, quote, peace, made, lifestyle, lepper, exceptional, due, crazy, competition, characters, brings, being, after, yet, world, who’ve, whole, way, valedictorian, unity, uninterrupted, unemphatic, throughout, through, things, theme