5.) What is the significance of Gene and Finny’s training? How is related to their conversations about war? What does it reveal about their relationship? (Rebecca Mironko)

            Finny and Gene's training helps them forget about the war and focus on what matters to them. Finny claims that the war isn't real, Gene doesn't believe him but he goes along with it. In chapter 8, Finny decides to train Gene for the 1944 Olympics, their training is a way to deal with the war, and bond as friends. Gene sees Finny's plan as a silly dream at first: "I went along, as I always did, with any new invention of Finny's. There was no harm in taking aim, even if the target was a dream." (Knowles 117) Throughout the book, Finny has given Gene direction and motivation, when Finny was gone Gene was without that, nut now that Finny is back he plans to give Gene a goal: the 1944 Olympics.
            Finny is in denial about the war because he cannot enlist, he tells himself it's all a lie, and focuses his life elsewhere. Finny knows what he likes and doesn't waste his time on much else, he discovers that he likes coaching Finny in the locker-room when Gene is doing chin ups. " until he sang out 'thirty!' with a flare of pleasure." (Knowles 117) Finny then decides that that is what he will now focus on; before it was sports, now it is training Finny.
            Gene went along with Finny's crazy idea at first, but he later realizes that the training is good for him, as well as his relationship with Finny. Gene discovers just how great he is when Finny describes his feelings accurately. "'You found your rhythm didn't you, that third time around'... 'Yes, I have been'... 'now you know'." (Knowles 120) Finny is talking about the feeling of being a good athlete when he says 'now you know'. He is showing Gene how it felt to be that good. Gene now has a better understanding of what exactly he took away from Finny. They become closer during there training, and by the end of the chapter, they have both disregarded the war.

What does the conversation about enlisting reveal about Finny and Gene’s relationship (p107-108)? Provide at least two specific examples. (Reina)

Gene and Finny’s conversation reveals that Finny needs and wants Gene more than Gene thinks. Gene is often skeptical of his relationship with Finny. It is clear that Gene admires Finny to the point of jealousy. Gene wants to be Finny’s best friend and even states it as “a compliment to me, as a matter of fact, to have such a person choose me for his best friend” (Knowles 11). Gene often attempts to identify himself as Finny by dressing in his clothes and acting like him and it is evident that he needs Finny to push him out of his boundaries.

However, in this exchange between  Finny and Gene, a different side of their friendship is shown. Finny is for shown to actually care about the consequences. Although the consequences are different as opposed to getting in trouble by a teacher, he fears for losing Gene. “‘Enlist!” cried Finny at the same time. His large and clear eyes turned with an odd expression on me. I had never seen such a look in them before…”You thought you might sign up?” he went on looking carefully away” (Knowles 107).

Gene is surprised to learn that Finny was afraid. Finny is not afraid to get in trouble or fall out of a tree, but the idea of losing Gene scares him. It is only now that Gene sees that Finny actually cares about being without him. “Phineas was shocked at the idea of my leaving. In some way he needed me.” This causes Gene to completely rule out the idea of enlisting and it shows that Finny still influences Gene more than anything else.

Assignment #7 Question #3 How does Finny feel about the war? How do you know this? Why does he act this way? Does it feel consistent with his character? (Anya Chung)

Finny believes the war is a conspiracy theory. When he and Gene are in the locker room, Gene brings up how things like sports don't seem that important now that the war is going on. Finny automatically states that there isn't any war. "'Don't be a sap,' he gazed with cool self-possession at me, 'there isn't any war.'" (Knowles 115). Gene is taken aback, and he assumes Finny is joking. However, it becomes apparent that Finny is serious. 

Finny acts like this because he is trying to convince himself that nothing has changed, although lots of things have. First Finny was betrayed by Gene, who he thought was his best friend. This resulted in never being able to play sports again, which is another major change in Finny's life. He comes back to Devon expecting it to be the same place he left it, but arrives to find Gene about to enlist. "Phineas was shocked at the idea of my leaving...He needed me." (Knowles 108). All these changes came very suddenly to Finny. Little changes, like the maids leaving, cause Finny to become distraught. Although it is obviously very simple to go on with life without maids, Finny is upset about the changes going on at the school. He doesn't want to accept any of these changes, so he convinces himself, and tries to convince Gene, that the war is not real.

This behavior is very unlike Finny. Before he broke his leg, Finny was very interested in the war. "'I was reading in the paper that we bombed Central Europe for the first time the other day.'...'Well, we've got to do something to celebrate.'" (Knowles 25). Now he is hurt and everything is different, but Finny doesn't want to show any kind of weakness. Instead, he uses his trademark charm on himself, to comfort himself into believing that none of the war, both between the world and between him and Gene, is real.

Assignment #6: Quetion #5 - Gene's feelings about war (Anthony LaMonica)

Gene does not like war at all. On page 101 Gene talks about how deadly things always wind up in his life some how. "The war would be deadly all right. But I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me; there was always something deadly lurking in anything I wanted, anything I loved. And if it wasn't there, as for example Phineas, then I put it there myself". Deadliness and despair have been recurring factors throughout the story. This quote shows that Gene doesn't like war, the bloodiness, the deaths, and the despair. This is why he had gone to Devon School in the first place, to try and escape all of that. The peaceful surroundings and the careless peace of the Devon summer. But now the war is coming toward him. The deadliness and despair follows him. The war, in my opinion, is the climax. All the other events, such as Blitzball and the incident at the tree, were all leading up to this war. Finny has been Genes  rock, his foundation holding him together. With his injury, and how Gene has been pondering it non stop, combined with the despair of war, is going to drive Gene crazy. If the war gets the best of Gene I fear bad things will soon come to happen to him.

How is Leper charcterized-Caleb assignment 6 Question 4

Part of this reading focuses on Leper. How is he characterized? What do we learn about him? Provide some specific details from the reading to support your answer.

Gene describes Leper as if Leper lives in his own world. Leper often just stares around and does whatever he feels he should do, regardless of what other people would think. "You know what? I did find it, "his smile was wide and unfocused, as though not for me alone but for anyone and anything which wished to share this pleasure with him, "and it was really interesting to see" (Knowles 99). When I picture Leper, I think of somebody who is always looking around, unfocused, not paying attention to anyone but himself. Once Gene explains how during Chapel Leper is just sitting by himself drawing sketches. Leper is characterized as a person who seems a little out of it and lives in his own world.

Assignment 6: Question 4: Characterizing Leper

In chapter seven of A Separate Peace, John Knowles begins to elaborate on the character of Leper, a slightly timid yet thoughtful boy with a personality that sharply contrasts from Devon's predominantly tough, war focused young men. When Gene first encounters Leper since the Summer Session, he describes his voice as "mild tentative" (Knowles 94). As their conversation continues, even more of Leper's humbly innocent personality show through, especially when he voiced his opinion on modern day skiing. " "They're ruining skiiing in this country, rope tows and chairlifts and all that stuff. You get carted up, and then you whizz down. You never get to see the trees or anything. Oh you see a lot of trees shoot by, but you never really get to look at trees, at a tree. I just like to go along and see what I'm passing and enjoy myself." " (Knowles 95). Leper's poetic views on the necessity of acknowledging life's small beauties seem to be a rare occurence in comparison to most of the other Devon boys. While Leper acts for the sake of his own relaxing exploration, the rest of his class ties most of their actions back to one common theme: war. During this era, jumping out of trees is to escape a sinking ship and common ball games are named after bombing strategies. In this context of the story, Gene encounters Leper on his way to shoveling out the railroad tracks with the rest of the boys, a task of grueling manual labor, not as an act of charity for his neighbors, but for a payment. Meanwhile Leper is merely excercising for pleasure. As the Summer Session at Devon has ended, so has Gene's version of easy going freedom from the harsh repurcussions of the war. However, John Knowles character of Leper Lepillier has still retained a quiet hold on this delicate innocence by living a lifestyle as free of such anxieties as possible; in other words, he still resides in his own separate peace.

Assignment #6 Question #3 Explore and explain the significance of the scene in the Butt Room.(Rei Halloran)

In chapter 7, Gene and Brinker go to the Butt room to go smoke a cigarette. There were a few other kids there smoking as well, and Brinker brings up Finny and the incident. Gene ends up telling the "story" about the accident. At first he tries to make up a story by saying, " I - all I did was drop a little bit.... a little pinch of arsenic in his morning coffee." (Knowles 89). But Brinker stops him and tells him that he was there when the accident happened. Gene says this beause he feels guilty for doing this to Finny and he really doesn't want to people to know it was him, Finny's best friend, that really did this. Once Gene finds out that most of the people in the Butt room were at the 'crime scene' when it happended, he tells the truth. However, Gene leaves out one part, the part about how he shook/pushed Finny out of the tree. Gene tries to have them guess how Finny fell out of the tree, " 'What did I do then?' I demanded. 'I'll bet you've got a lot of theories. Come on, reconstruct the crime. There we were at the tree. Then what happened, Sherlock Holmes?' " (Knowles 91). One of the kids actually guessed correctly, but Gene lies and answers, "You lose. I guess you're Dr. Watson, after all." (Knowles 91) Gene tries to avoid any other conversations with anyone in the room and leaves.
Before this whole conversation, Brinker tells Gene, "But the truth will out." (Knowles 88). Gene was affraid the truth would come out and he would be thought of as the bad guy at Devon. In the end most of the truth did come out, except the most important part. Gene was affraid that if he talked to someone about that night, the real truth would have come out, and everyone would know that he was the bad guy who hurt his best friend, Finny.