A Separate Peace
Chapter 1 Summary
 Gene Forrester returns to Devon School
 Campus seems well preserved
 Remembers how fearful he was during that time (1940’s, during
WWII) and visits the two places he associates with that fear
 1st place is the marble staircase which shows little sign of wear over
the years (depressions marks are shallow)
 2nd place is the river where a specific tree is located
 Flashback to summer of 1942- Gene is standing at the bottom of the
tree by the river- describes it as a “steely black steeple”
 Three other boys are at the bottom of the tree- Leper, Chet, and Bobby
 Finny tries to persuade boy to jump off tree into the river- only seniors
have done this
 Finny jumps and tells the boys how fun it was
 Finny sends Gene up the tree ordering him to jump, however, Gene is
very frightened
 Gene jumps, but the other 3 refuse
 Boys head back to campus for dinner
 Finny jokes with Gene saying he did a great job jumping only after
Finny shamed him into it- Gene denies this, but knows it is true
 Gene and Finny wrestle with one another, miss dinner and go straight
to their room
A Separate Peace
Chapter 2 Summary
 Mr. Prud’homme visits Gene and Finny to discipline them for not
coming to dinner, but is distracted by Finny’s talkativeness
 Finny wears a bright pink shirt to celebrate the first allied bombing of
central Europe
 Gene envies Finny for being able to “get away” with wearing this
color
 At a tea with the headmaster, Finny is able to converse with ease
while the other boys are quite awkward
 Finny wears his school tie as a belt, but escapes punishment- he is
somehow able to make the headmaster actually laugh about this
 Gene is secretly upset that Finny escapes getting into trouble for
wearing the tie as a belt
 Gene and Finny swim in the river by the tree and form the “Super
Suicide Society of the Summer Session”
 While making a jump from the tree, Gene looses his balance and
Finny catches him
 Gene realizes that Finny may have saved his life
A Separate Peace
Chapter 3 Summary
 Although Gene is grateful that Finny saved his life, he realizes that he
wouldn’t have been in the tree if it weren’t for Finny
 Feels he owes Finny no real gratitude
 Super Suicide Society convinces 6 boys to join their group- rules
include jumping out of the tree
 Gene hates jumping out of the tree and never looses this fear
 Finny invents a new sport, “blitzball,” which becomes popular
 Gene and Finny are at the school swimming pool, when Finny breaks
one of the school swimming records- he doesn’t allow Gene to tell
anyone about it
 Gene and Finny take a trip (by bicycle) to the beach
 Finny enjoys himself and tries to keep Gene entertained- the boys
spend the night there
 Finny tells Gene he is his best friend-Gene starts to say the same but
holds back at the last minute
A Separate Peace
Chapter 4 Summary
 Gene and Finny get back to school in time for Gene to take his
trigonometry test which he fails (first time he has ever failed a test)
 That night, Gene catches up on trigonometry and Finny tells him he
studies too hard
 Finny tells Gene he is trying to be valedictorian- Gene denies it, but
realizes he does want to be valedictorian so he can match Finny who
has several athletic awards
 Gene asks Finny how he would feel if he achieved the honor and
Finny says he would kill himself out of envy-Gene feels there is some
truth in this
 Gene feels there is a true rivalry between himself and Finny and that
Finny’s friendship is just a way to prevent Gene from achieving
academic success
 Gene works to become an excellent student as Finny also makes an
attempt at becoming a better student
 Gene feels that Finny is studying so that he can compete with Gene
(Gene is a good athlete and an excellent student. Finny is an excellent
athlete, but a poor student.)
 Finny tells Gene that Leper is planning to jump from the tree into the
river
 Gene thinks this is an attempt on Finny’s part to distract Gene from
studying and complains to Finny
 Finny tells Gene that he didn’t realize Gene needed to study and
thought it just came naturally
 Finny tells Gene to stay and study
 Gene now feels that there is no rivalry between himself and Finny
 Finny and Gene decide to do a double jump into the river
 Finny goes out on the limb first, but when Gene steps out his knees
bend which causes the limb to shake. This causes Finny to loose his
balance and fall to the ground.
 Gene goes to the end of the limb and dives fearlessly into the water