Theme Analysis

As with most novels, it is best to begin a discussion of thematics by examining the title. The phrase, "a separate peace," is mentioned once in the novel when, speaking of the Winter Carnival, Gene writes: "it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace" (128). The Devon of 1942 and 1943 is, at times, a haven of peace and forgetfulness …

…most importantly, the horrifying realization that the person he thought was his friend is responsible for his injury. The task, it seems, is too great even for Phineas, who dies because of the hatred and insecurity around him. The peace and friendship that Gene lost, the peace that is Finny, becomes for Gene so internalized that he no longer perceives Finny as separate from himself, evidenced by his feeling that Finny's funeral is his own.