Study Guide for A Separate Peace

Chapter 1

1. To what time does the story flash back?  Where is the story set?
2. What are the reasons for the narrator’s (Gene) return?
3. What surprising fact does he realize he had overlooked about the stairs in the First Academy Building?
4. When he visits the tree, he thinks it resembles something.  What does it resemble?
5. How does he feel about seeing the tree?  Why?
6. Who of the five boys is eager to jump from the tree?  Why do you think he’s eager?
7. What is the relationship between Gene and Finny?

Chapters 2 & 3

Each of the following incidents tells us more about the two main characters and their relationship.  For each event, list what happens.  List page numbers in your responses.

8. the incident with Prudhomme
9. the incident with the pink shirt
10. the faculty tea
11. jumping off the tree together
12. breaking the school swimming record
13. the beach outing

Answer the following questions:

14. Why and how does the Devon faculty treat the boys differently during the summer?
15. Why don’t Finny and Gene believe in the bombing of Central Europe?
16. What, according to Gene, are Finny’s personal rules of conduct?
17. Describe the new game invented by Finny.
18. How does Gene seem to feel about Finny’s success with people?
19. How does he react to Finny’s avowal of friendship at the beach?

Chapters 4 & 5

 The drama in these chapters takes place inside the mind and heart of Gene.  Follow what happens step by step.  What does he think and how does he feel?  Include page numbers in your responses.

20. At the beach the day of the examination
21. When Finny teases him about wanting to be valedictorian
22. When Finny says, “I’ll kill myself with envy.”
23. When Phineas increased his studying
24. On some beautiful, intoxicating summer mornings
25. About the Suicide Society meetings
26. When Finny announces the initiation of Leper Lepellier
27. When Finny says, “Don’t go.  What the hell.  It’s only a game.”
28. When they walk to the tree together
29. After Phineas falls
30. While Finny is in the infirmary
31. When Dr. Stanpole tells him Finny will never play sports again
32. When the doctor says, “You’re the one person he asked for.”
33. When he first speaks to Phineas in the infirmary.
34. When Finny says, “I thought I could reach out and get hold of you.”
35. When Finny apologizes for suspecting the truth.
36. At home, in between summer and fall sessions
37. When he saw Phineas sitting before the fireplace in his home
38. Before he tells him the truth
39. After he tells him the truth

Chapter 6

40.    How are the summer session and the fall session like phases of a person’s life?

41. What are Gene’s memories of Phineas like?

41. Why does he apply to be crew manager?  Quakenbush thinks he is disabled; is he?
42. What is Gene grieving for in the lines that start “…the loss I was fighting to endure, of skylarks, and splashes and petal-bearing breezes…”?
43. Why does he fight Quakenbush?
44. What does Gene regret?
45. What is the purpose of Finny’s call?
46. What new insight does Gene have about himself at the end of Chapter 6?

Chapter 7

48. How does Brinker make Gene extremely defensive?  How does Gene handle the situation?
49. How does the War work its way gradually into the lives of the Devon students?
50. How do Gene and Brinker feel about school after working in the railroad yards all day?
51. How does Leper differ from them in this regret?
52. How does Gene compare his interest in the War to his love for Finny?
53. What decision does he seem to come to that night and why is it reversed suddenly?

Chapter 8

54. According to Gene, how do he and Finny differ about how they look at the future?
55. What is Brinker’s “catastrophic joke”?  Why doesn’t he let it drop?
56. What does Gene realize about Finny when he discusses enlisting?
57. What does Finny save Gene from?
58. Where does Finny want to go instead of to class?  How does Gene misjudge Finny again?
59. What does Gene discover about Finny’s strength and health?
60. What does Finny say about the war (and Prohibition and the Depression)?  Does he believe it?  Why was it hard for Gene not to believe it?
61. Why do you think Gene goes along with Finny’s exercise program?
62. Why do they both make such good progress—Finny in studies, Gene in sports?
63. What did Mr. Lubsbury say should be the purpose of all exercise?
64. Why does Gene say Mr. Ludsbury is gullible?

Chapter 9

65.    Why did Gene lapse into Finny’s vision of peace?

66. Why did the recruitment film appeal to Leper?  What did he do because of the film?
67. What influences pull Gene in different directions during this time?
68. What change has overcome Brinker?
69. Why was the Winter Carnival so successful?
70. What was the “separate peace”?

Chapter 10

71. How does Gene describe his army career?
72. What has happened to Leper?  Why did it happen?
73. How does Gene react to Leper?

Chapter 11

74. Why is Gene so happy to get back to Phineas?
75. How does the snowball fight end?
76. How does Finny take the news about Leper?
77. Why does Brinker organize the mock trial?
78. Is Finny trying to cover for Gene or doesn’t he really remember what happened?
79. Why does Finny reveal that Leper is on campus?
80. After Leper’s testimony, what do you think Finny is feeling?
81. How does this scene parallel the snowball fight?

Chapters 12 & 13

82.    Who takes care of Finny after his fall down the stairs?  Why doesn’t Gene?

83. How would you describe Gene’s state of mind as he waits under the window outside the Infirmary?
84. “You want to break something else in me!  Is that why you’re here?”  Can you explain the feelings behind this cry?
85. Describe how Gene felt as he wandered that night.
86. Are Gene and Finny ever reconciled?  What is the most important thing Gene says to him?
87. What truth are they both able to accept about the accident?
88. In what sense is Finny’s funeral Gene’s own?
89. What is the “enemy” that Gene killed before he goes to war?
90. What enemy do all of us defend ourselves against?  Is it real?