Theme The theme in A Separate Peace is that people create enemies in their mind for themselves to destroy, but once the enemy is lost so is the victor. While World War II lingers on in the background of most of the students minds, the war in Gene's life is within himself. In Knowles perspective, through the character of Gene, everyone goes through a war in his life and there is always an enemy to …showed first 75 words of 1642 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1642 total…in WW2, kills Finny. The war acted as a catalyst for the students actions. Brinker became very outgoing and spontaneous, Gene fought his own world war, and Leper was driven to insanity. To each their own they found ways to deal with the war, except for the innocent Finny; too pure to even believe that there was a war, much like he didn't know a stab in his own back when Gene stood behind him.