A Brief Summary Of Chapter 5 Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

John Knowles’s novel, A Separate Peace, takes place in Devon Prep school in New Hampshire, at the beginning of WWII. A student there, Gene, accidently causes a tragic incident that involves his best friend, Finny. After the accident, Gene is unable to accept the truth, and hides behind Finny’s ignorance of the details of the event in hopes of continuing the peace between them. Through an unstable peace, Knowles displays that denying the truth can only lead to a precarious false sense of comfort. In chapter 5 of A Separate Peace, John Knowles introduces the denial of truth between friends. Gene comes into Finny’s home, and confesses that he, Gene, caused Finny’s accident. However, Finny replies, “I don’t know anything. Go away.” (70). This is a clear instance of Finny denying the truth that appears from Gene’s mouth. By doing so, Finny attempts to preserve their comfortable friendship by getting rid of Gene’s guilt for causing the accident. However, in reality, that comfortable friendship is merely a weak mask on top of the true situation of a strained relationship. …show more content…
Finny has returned from his medical leave, and pressures Gene to prepare for the 1944 Olympics. Despite the pressure, Gene protests that there is a war occurring that leaves no room to practice for sports. After hearing that remark, Finny states, “Leave your fantasy life out of this. We’re grooming you for the Olympics, pal, in 1944” (117). Once again, Finny denies the truth, but this time it is the denial of the existence of war. With this denial, Finny comforts himself so that Finny has a chance to pass on and achieve the dream of going to Olympics to someone else. Like before, the denial is a weak mask. Eventually, the truth will come out and shatter the false