what is a good theme in the book "A separate peace"?

Question

i have to write an essay on the theme of a separate peace... i have no clue what it is soo.... can you guys help me?!?!?! i know that friendship is one but i need some more

Answer 1

Ah sparknotes - thank you:

Themes: A Separate Peace
"The Threat of Codependency to Identity
The central relationship in the novel—that between Finny and Gene—involves a complex dynamic of seeking to establish, yet being uncomfortable with, identity. Early in the book, the boys’ relationship seems fueled, in part, by Gene’s envy and resentment of his friend’s dominating spirit. As Finny demonstrates his physical prowess, Gene feels the need to accentuate his academic prowess. Finny’s fall from the tree, however, apparently purges Gene of his darker feelings and steers their relationship in a different direction so that codependency rather than envy characterizes it. The scene immediately following the fall symbolizes this evolution, as Gene dresses in Finny’s clothes and sees himself as looking exactly like him. From this point on, he and Finny come to depend on each other for psychological support. Gene plays sports because Finny cannot, allowing Finny to train him to be the athlete that Finny himself cannot be. This training seems an avenue for Finny simply to live vicariously through Gene. But Gene actively welcomes this attempt by Finny, for just as Finny derives inner strength from fulfilling his dreams through Gene, so, too, does Gene find happiness in losing his own self (which he seems to dislike) in Finny’s self (which he likes very much).

Thus, the boys’ relationship becomes a model of codependency, with each feeding off of, and becoming fulfilled by, the other. This codependency preempts the development of their individual identities, perhaps dangerously: by living within their own private illusion that World War II is a mere conspiracy and continuing to believe that Gene (and Finny through him) will go to the Olympics and that the outside world can never curtail their dreams, the boys are refusing to grow up and develop their own ambitions and responsibilities. Not even Finny’s death, though it separates them physically, can truly untangle Gene’s identity from Finny’s—he feels as though Finny’s funeral is his own. In a sense, the reader realizes, the funeral is indeed Gene’s own; so much of him is merged with Finny that it is difficult to imagine one boy continuing to exist without the other. It is perhaps only his ultimate understanding that Finny alone had no enemy that allows the older Gene to reestablish a separate identity—one that he considers, however, inferior to Finny’s.
The Creation of Inner Enemies
A Separate Peace takes place during wartime and is emphatically a novel about war—and yet not a single shot is fired in the course of the story, no one dies in battle, and only the unfortunate Leper even joins the military before graduation. Instead, Knowles focuses on the war within the human heart, a war that is affected by the events of World War II but exists independently of any real armed conflict. For Knowles—or at least for his narrator, Gene—every human being goes to war at a certain point in life, when he or she realizes that the world is a fundamentally hostile place and that there exists in it some enemy who must be destroyed. The novel implicitly associates this realization of the necessity of a personal war with adulthood and the loss of childhood innocence. For most of Gene’s classmates, World War II provides the catalyst for this loss, and each reacts to it in his own way—Brinker by nurturing a stance of bravado, for example, and Leper by descending into madness.
Gene himself, though, states that he fought his own war while at Devon and killed his enemy there. The obvious implication is that Finny, as the embodiment of a spirit greater than Gene’s own, was his enemy, casting an unwavering shadow over Gene’s life. One might alternatively interpret Gene’s statement to mean that this enemy was himself, his own resentful, envious nature, which he “killed” either by knocking Finny from the tree or by obtaining forgiveness from Finny for doing so. In either case, the overall theme is clear: all humans create enemies for themselves and go to war against them. Everyone, that is, except Finny, the champion of innocence, who refuses to believe that anyone could be his enemy. In a sense, Finny’s death is inevitable: his innocence makes him too good for the war-torn and inimical world in which the rest of humanity lives.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Transformations
There are a number of significant transformations within the course of A Separate Peace. Finny is transformed from a healthy athlete into a cripple after his accident and then sets about transforming Gene into an athlete in his stead. These developments function as part of the broader process by which Gene’s identity blurs into Finny’s, a transformation symbolized by Gene’s putting on Finny’s clothes one evening soon after the accident. Meanwhile, the summer session at Devon, a time of peace and carefree innocence, metamorphoses into the winter session, in which rules and order hold sway and the darkness of the war encroaches on Devon. In a broad sense, the novel is intimately concerned with the growth of boys into men. The horrifying visions of transformation that drive Leper from the army—men turning into women, men’s heads on women’s bodies—embody all of the anxieties that plague his classmates as they deal with the joint, inevitable onset of war and adulthood.
Athletics
A Separate Peace is filled with athletic activities, from the tree-climbing that is central to the plot to swimming, skiing, and snowball fights. For the most part, these games shed light on the character of Finny, who is a tremendous athlete but who nevertheless despises competition (in contrast to Gene) and imagines athletics as a realm of pure vitality and achievement, without winners and losers. This mindset is evident in the way that he behaves after breaking the school swimming record—he refuses to let Gene tell anyone about his feat—and in the game of blitzball, which he invents. Blitzball is the perfect game for Finny because it requires tremendous exertion and agility yet is impossible to win and focuses on pure athleticism rather than the defeat of opponents.


For even more, please go to link 2;
A sample:

"Reflection: is central to the novel; the novel is spawned by a visit back to Gene's old school, and the work hinges upon a dialogue between the past and the present, and the relation of a man to his much younger self. Gene confesses that he is still stuck in the time of World War II; his memory still has a tremendous hold on him, as evidenced by his ability to recall the goings on of fifteen years' past with such detail. The presence of memory, and its role over time, is a major theme of this book; when Gene reiterates his thoughts on the past and on the lasting impact of the events he is describing, he only increases the importance of this theme within the novel."

Or link 3:
"A Separate Peace: Major Themes:

"Jealousy: Gene is envious of Finny's natural athletic ability.
Irresponsibility: Finny refuses to follow the school's regulations.
Denial: Finny denies that Gene pushed him out of the tree, since he believes that all people are innately good.
Insecurity: Gene is insecure about his own ability and intelligence."

Answer 2

There is so much going on in "A Separate Peace" and so many themes that it is easy to get jumbled. It is obviously a coming of age, loss of innocence novel. More importantly, IMO, is the theme of friendship - friendship that grows through war and conflict. I think that bond of friendship between Gene and Finny is the the key to the book. It is a complicated friendship, especially for Gene, who is full of jealousy, fear, and love. It isn't until later in life that Gene fully realizes that his friendship with Finny was truly his own personal separate peace. I hope this makes sense. It is a complicated novel.