A Separate Peace

Although none of the students are allowed to visit Finny in the infirmary, rumors spread that Finny “shattered” (58) one of his legs. The professors of the school seem particularly affected, “as though they felt it was especially unfair that it should strike one of the sixteen-year-olds, one of the few young men who could be free and happy in the summer of 1942” (58). Gene presumes that there must have been rumors about him, but no one suspects that Gene caused Finny’s fall, and “Phineas must still be too sick, or too noble, to tell them” (58). Gene “spent as much time as I could alone in our room, trying to empty my mind of every thought, to forget where I was, even who I was” (58). But one day, while getting dressed for dinner, Gene suddenly decides to put on Finny’s clothes, including the pink shirt.

Dressed, Gene looks in the mirror and sees himself as Finny, down to the “humorous expression on [his] face, his sharp, optimistic awareness” (58). Feeling inexplicably relieved, Gene thinks, “it seemed, standing there in Finny’s triumphant shirt, that I would never stumble through the confusions of my own character again” (58). Gene decides not to go to dinner, and the feeling remains until he wakes up the next morning. At that point, Gene is “confronted with myself and what I had done to Finny” (58). That morning, on the steps to the chapel, Dr. Stanpole, the campus doctor, calls Gene over. Although Gene is immediately afraid that the doctor will accuse him, he instead informs Gene that Finny is better and can have visitors. Gene worries that his presence will upset Finny, but the doctor insists that “a pal or two” will “do him good” (58). Dr. Stanpole tells Gene that it is a bad break, but Finny will walk again. However, his athletic days are over.

Gene begs he doctor to tell him that there’s a chance that Finny’s leg could be the way it was, but Dr. Stanpole replies, “‘Sports are finished. As a friend you ought to help him face that and accept it’” (58). Gene weeps, and the doctor tries to calm him, adding that Gene is “the one person he asked for” (60). Gene stops crying, realizing “[o]f course I was the first person he wanted to see. Phineas would say nothing behind my back; he would accuse me, face to face” (60). Entering Finny’s room, Gene discovers that Finny looks pale and drugged. Apprising his friend, Finny asks why Gene looks so upset. In an outburst, Gene asks him what happened—how could he fall? Finny replies, “‘I just fell. […] Something jiggled and I fell over’” (60). Finny remembers looking back at Gene, intending to reach for him. When Gene reacts, accusing Finny of wanting to drag him down, Finny, “looking vaguely over [Gene’s] face” (60), adds that he was reaching to steady himself.

Finny wonders why Gene had such a “funny expression” of shock at the moment Finny fell—the same expression he has now. Gene claims that he was and is shocked. He reminds Finny that he was right next to him on the branch, and Finny responds, “‘Yes, I know. I remember it all’” (60). After a “hard block of silence” (60), Gene asks if Finny remembers what caused him to fall. Continuing to watch Gene’s face, Finny tells Gene that he simply lost his balance, admitting, “‘I did have this idea, this feeling that when you were standing there beside me, y—I don’t know, I had a kind of feeling’” (60). Finny apologizes for suspecting him, and Gene understands that Finny is not going to accuse him based on a feeling. But if Finny had been in Gene’s place, he would have told the truth. Suddenly, Gene stands and asserts that he needs to tell Finny something he won’t like. But the doctor interrupts and sends Gene away before he can say anything. The next day, Finny isn’t up for visitors, and he is soon taken by ambulance back to his home in Boston.

Summer Session ends, and Gene spends a month at home. Then, he takes a train to Boston and shows up at Finny’s house. Finny is cheerful and happy to see Gene. Falling into a friendly pattern, they catch up, and Gene wonders how he will bring up what happened in the tree. The house seems too formal compared to their dorm room. Finally, Gene admits that he has been thinking about the accident. He tells Finny, “‘I jounced the limb. I caused it. […] I deliberately jounced the limb so you would fall off’” (67). Finny refuses to believe him, threatening first to hit Gene and then to kill him if he doesn’t stop talking. Gene realizes that his confession is hurting Finny even worse than the initial injury and questions whether he truly meant to cause his fall. He is determined to retract his confession for Finny’s sake but can’t bring himself to do it in this setting. Gene tells Finny that he’s exhausted from the trip and not making sense. Since Finny will be back at school in a few weeks, Gene resolves to make it up to him there.

Back at school, Gene explains, “[p]eace had deserted Devon” (70). He describes the different pace of the winter semester as compared to the Summer Session. The summer semester had been the first such session in school history: “a few dozen boys being force-fed education, a stopgap while most of the masters were away and most of the traditions stored against sultriness” (70). But the Winter Session is a well-oiled machine full of time-honored traditions. Gene notes:

There was one surprise; maids had disappeared “for the Duration,” a new phrase then. But continuity was stressed, not beginning again but continuing the education of young men according to the unbroken traditions of Devon (70).

But over the summer, the lax atmosphere on campus led to an unseating of tradition and flouting of rules. Of course, Finny’s fall from the tree “probably vindicated the rules of Devon after all, wintery Devon. If you broke the rules, then they broke you” (70).

Back in the dorm, Gene is in the same room he shared with Finny during the Summer Session, but he has a new neighbor. Across the hall, Leper Lepellier’s former room has been filled with Brinker Hadley, and Leper has been moved across campus. Gene considers visiting Brinker but decides against it. He is late for a meeting at the Crew House by the river. The river makes him stop and think of Finny—not of his fall, but of Finny performing a stunt balancing on the end of a canoe. Gene arrives late to the meeting, and Quackenbush, the crew manager, chastises him. Gene is the assistant crew manager, a “nonentity of a job” (72), usually given to underclassmen who could step into the role of crew manager or disabled students who couldn’t otherwise participate in athletics.

Gene doesn’t like Quackenbush. Quackenbush mocks him for taking an assistant manager position as a senior, calling him a “maimed son-of-a-bitch” (75), and Gene suddenly hits him. They wrestle, falling into the water. Gene threatens Quackenbush for his use of the word “maimed,” and Quackenbush kicks him out of practice. Wet and cold, Gene heads back toward the dorm. On the way inside, he meets Mr. Ludsbury, who manages his dorm. Ludsbury comments on Gene’s wetness, then mentions that he heard that over the summer, students in the dorm had been gambling. Gene demurs but remembers playing cards with Finny and winning Finny’s icebox. Ludsbury tells Gene that he needs to get rid of the icebox, since it is not permitted. He adds that while Gene was out, he received a long-distance phone call, which he may go into Ludbury’s office to return.

Retrieving the message, Gene is surprised to discover that the number is not from his hometown. When he calls the number, he reaches Finny. The two chat, and Gene tells him that no one has taken Finny’s spot as his roommate. Finny comments that Gene had been acting crazy when he visited, and Finny wants to make sure he has recovered. If Gene had allowed the school to put someone else in their room, Finny would have known that Gene was still crazy. Finny asks Gene what sports he is trying out for, and Gene tells him that he had planned to assistant manage the crew team but does not think it will work out. Appalled, Finny calls him crazy after all for wanting to manage instead of play, and Gene says, “‘Listen, Finny, I don’t care about being a big man on the campus or anything’” (82). Gene has decided that he no longer wants to play sports and that they seem as forbidden for him as they are for Finny. He can no longer see sports as just harmless games. Gene tells Finny that he has no time to play sports, but Finny insists, “‘If I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me’” (82). This announcement makes Gene feel like he and Finny become intertwined at that moment.