A Separate Peace: Says President Howard W. Hunter

Search for identity “The greatest search of our time is the search for personal identity and for human dignity.” Says President Howard W. Hunter. In fact, searching for identity is one of the major life tasks among teenagers as well as adults. Sixteen years old protagonist, Gene, narrates a novel “A separate peace”. He is dynamic character and we see his self-development throughout the book. In this novel, Gene moves from innocent childhood into impure world and this process leads him to his self-identification. The inner struggle of protagonist between parallel worlds lasts during the whole book. Only in the end of the novel, we see the shift in him. He finally reaches his goal and becomes mature person who has already realistic view at the world. …show more content…
[…] I decided to put on his clothes. […]” (Pg.62). In this passage we see Gene, who stays alone in the room and puts on Finny’s clothe. His action has deep metaphorical meaning. By taking off his clothe and putting on Finny’s he tries to become someone other than himself, at least for a little while. He is confused in himself and tired of being Gene. Maybe tired of discovering who he is, that’s why he puts himself in comfort zone by becoming his best friend Finny, who is ideal person for him. He frees himself from his inner struggle for a little while, doesn’t have enough strength to identify self that’s why he finds a simple way to stop this process for a while. At this point Gene knows particularly nothing about himself, in later passages, followed by life experiences he becomes