Theme in A Separate Peace

There are any examples of theme in the novel A Separate Peace. One central theme to the novel is this idea of inner enemies or non-physical enemies. In other words, there are no shots fired even though the story is in the setting of World War II. Even though Leper does eventually join the military, the book does not expose any violence or bloodshed. Enemies are only created in the heart of these characters through World War II but again, no shots are fired. In the novel, Gene finally realizes that everyone will go to his/her own war at some point in his/her life, and he realizes that the world is a cruel and hostile place and these enemies need to be dealt with. Gene does this by symbolically pushing Finny off of the tree. The overarching message is that everyone will create enemies, and everyone will "go to war" and deal with their enemies however they can. Another theme that appears in this novel is a dependence on friendship and the reliance on people's help. In the beginning of the novel, Gene develops this jealousy over Finny because Finny is able to do a lot of bad things and get away with it. Finny's talent is the cause of Gene's jealousy and eventually leads Gene into thinking that Finny is trying to sabotage Gene by ruining his studies. This snowball effect leads Gene to push Finny off of the tree. But during the middle of the novel, both of these characters seem to live off of each other's identities. Gene teaches Finny academics and Finny trains Gene for the "Olympics". This feeling of completeness that these two characters feel from living in each others lives creates this theme of dependence on one another.