I reread A Separate Peace. Oh my god….. these guys.
I had originally read the book in high school as part of an assignment. At the time, in high school, I was pretty damn sure I was a guy. I don’t recall feeling much for the novel itself, other than the fact that Gene and Phineas’ relationship was definitely very tender, very intimate, and very homoerotic at times. Since then it’s been shelved on my bookshelf, untouched since perhaps around the age of 19, but by then I shoved myself into the furthest reaches of the closet and acted as though my being trans never existed in the first place.
Strange now, seeing as so much of my work centers on M/M relationships.
A Separate Peace, in my rereading of it this week, was tender in its restraint. It isn’t meant to overwhelm. Other than the incident with the book’s characters and the tragedy at the end, like I said, it isn’t meant to overwhelm.. It is not abrupt, obscene, or otherwise reaching for something beyond its hold. It’s lukewarm at best. It gets cold towards the end, like a body losing heat in its last breaths, and it personally left me feeling bereft of something despite that something being there the whole time.
Plot, with spoilers, features our narrator, Gene Forrester, speaking from a first person point of view the events that transpired in his adolescence at a fictional all-boy’s boarding school in New England called Devon. Gene speaks highly, and lowly, of his best friend Phineas. Gene is booksmart, sarcastic, less athletic; Phineas portrays everything Gene is not: Phineas is athletic, a magnet to the other boys of their grade, give or take, and is an enjoyer of spur-of-the-moment fun and games that builds Gene’s own resentment towards Finny. He, despite their sincere friendship where touch is the cornerstone of their relationship, comes to believe that Finny is simply more malicious than he seems and is trying to get Gene to fail.
I would not say Phineas is stupid. I wouldn’t say he’s some brainless himbo who strives for attention of others like some reflections of his character I’ve seen throughout time. Rather, he’s charismatic. He talks himself out of situations and into them and they tend to end in his favor. He invents new games and always prefers his best friend, Gene, to a point where it becomes nothing short of favoritism. Even when he’s disabled after the accident in the tree, he still has that so called indomitable human spirit about him.
Gene says himself that this is his sarcastic summer of 1942. During this time, the Second World War is being fought overseas. Tensions are rising but here, at Devon, this their separate peace. I HATED Gene at this point in time. I felt as though he was giving it all to be as unlikeable as possible.
It all comes to a head when he jounces the limb and forced Finny to fall from the tree.
I think despite the folly of Gene, we begin to understand his character far better. The world unravels around us - I mean of course, given that this incident happened too soon, but the book itself isn’t so big. He goes through stages of grief. We find out sooner than later that Gene deems Phineas as an extension of himself.
No, more than that. Gene sees Phineas as a part of himself. He cannot tell, we cannot tell, where one boy ends and the other begins.
In the infirmary, Phineas is blind to what transpires next with Gene, but we aren’t. He agrees to enlist with a mutual friend. That night, Gene returns to his dorm and finds Finny there. Any semblance of a thought of enlisting is gone like that first false snowfall of the winter.
Phineas can’t believe Gene would want to enlist. In some way, he needs him. Gene, you fool, he needs you.
I refuse to elaborate more or share more. From here, though it needed to be done, in some way I suppose, the plot entangles and deepens and there is no real way to cope with Finny’s death. But Gene himself, so entwined in Phineas, does not fear his being gone. They are so entwined in spirit it’s as if Phineas was still alive.
The themes of this book, while not outrightly gay, can still be viewed very strongly through that lens. There is so much more to the story than Gene and Phineas’ relationship, but I digress, I still believe they are at the forefront. Without them, there would be no novel.
you guys (probably) already know what the hot topic over on a Certain Platform is… for consistency sake, i will also be dropping my other social media links below!
*I’m probably never leaving tumblr so don’t think I’m jumping ship here LOL
