I first met Phineas and Gene fifty-five years ago. I was sixteen years old as they were. Recently I was roaming around a used bookstore. It even had boxes of books on its front porch. As I scanned the titles of hardcovers and paperbacks, there it was, a well worn paperback of “A Separate Peace”. It was that one book of the many you read growing up that you never forget. It was written by John Knowles and published in 1959. It is a coming-of-age story of two teenage boys at a New England prep school called Devon in 1942. It’s told through the eyes of Gene Forrester who reruns to the school fifteen years after that fateful summer to tell the story of his friendship with his former roommate and best friend Phineas.
Gene and Phineas were opposites. Gene was quiet, introverted and smart. Phineas was carefree, athletic, full of personality that could charm and captivate fellow students and even the professors at Devon. But he was not much interested in studying. With fewer students and professors during the summer session, Phineas was always looking for new adventures to show off his athletic skill. He organizes the “Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session.” The initiation is climbing up a large tree on the shore and jumping into the Devon River from a large branch that hangs over the river. The jumper has to be careful to walk far enough out on the limb to make sure he clears the bank and lands in the water. Gene and Phineas develop a rivalry. Gene wants to outdo Phineas academically and he feels Phineas wants to show him up athletically.
It comes to a climax when Phineas challenges Gene to jump from the tree together. What happens next changes and deepens their relationship at critical time in their lives. They come to rely on each other in ways they wouldn’t have admitted to each other before the jump. As a sixteen year old growing up in Brooklyn in the 1960s, the story brought me to a world I didn’t know. It was a privileged world of a private prep school where students had to find their way through friendships and challenges. The descriptions of student life, the playing fields and stately buildings drew me into a life I wanted to experience. But in 1942, Gene and Phineas were facing the world at war and it was going to be up to them to eventually win the war. The specter of the war permeates the story. Phineas, the free spirit, refused to believe there really was a war going on. He said it was a conspiracy made up by old men. I wondered how I would’ve navigated friendships under those circumstances.
The incident at the tree makes Gene examine the type of person he is and realizes the kind of person Phineas really is. Gene has to come to grips with what really happened on that branch. At first, when Gene tells Phineas what he did on the branch Phineas doesn’t believe him. But later comes to realize his friend may have betrayed him.
A third student, Brinker Hadley, is suspicious of what really happened in the tree and organizes a show trial to get to the truth. I was struck by boys my age showing the maturity of trying to get to the truth and establish accountability. The trial and the shocking end causes the friends to face the truth, find forgiveness and secure their bond of friendship
This a story of a protected world of young boys knowing their carefree days of are coming to an end as they face the reality of having to go off to war when their last year of high school ends. Gene and Phineas have a relationship that is dependent on each other. They need each other. After the incident Gene feels responsible for helping Phineas. Phineas needs him and can’t believe Gene would intentionally try to hurt him. What happened on the tree branch represents the end of innocence.
In the ensuring years, Gene learns a lot about people and their relationships and insecurities. As he looks back on his friendship with Phineas, he realizes honesty and forgiveness are the basis for a true friendship. Reading the story now makes me reflect on my own life and friendships and I remember how I felt all those years ago as I imagined myself at Devon knowing Gene and Phineas and watching their journey to a separate peace.
There’s nothing like reflections. While we all read the usual books in high school (from Shakespeare to Lord of the Flies to Of Human Bondage), and sat through teacher directed discussions (sometimes listening, sometimes not), there’s nothing like revisiting their themes as the elderly. For me Death of a Salesman and Twelve Angry Men caught my attention. Your reflections on A Separate Peace are now causing me to review and reflect on those two works and ask why they caught my attention. As always, appreciate your thoughts and insights.