Ryan Green & Sabrina Wooding Devon vs. War Ryan Green & Sabrina Wooding

In A Separate Peace, Devon School acts as an isolated area of innocence while the rest of the world is in chaos.

“There was going to be no government, even by whim, even by Brinker’s whim, on this Saturday at Devon.” p.134 Finny decided to have a Winter Carnival. The boys at Devon had begun to loosen up at the Carnival. At this point, the seniors of Devon trampled over each other to do as they please.

“The class above, seniors, draft-bait, practically soldiers, rushed ahead of us toward the war. They were caught up in accelerated courses…” p.15 The summer session just began and the boys are preparing to jump from a limb of the tree for the first time. Gene compares his class’ courses to those of the senior class’.

“We were careless and wild, and I suppose we could be thought of as a sign of the life the war was being fought to preserve.” p.24 Gene is thinking about how loosely the headmasters of the school are treating the students during the first ever Summer Session.

“Devon was by tradition and choice the most civilian of schools, and there was a certain strained hospitality in the way both the faculty and students worked to get along with the leathery recruiting officers….” p.159 Gene has just returned from Leper’s house and has been noticing an increase in military recruiters.

“We were still calmly, numbly reading Virgil and playing tag, in the river further downstream.” p.15 Gene had just started reflecting on his time at Devon beginning with the summer session. He compares his course to that of the seniors.

“’Would they bother you if you did, if you happened to keep imagining a man’s head on a woman’s body….Maybe everybody imagines things like that when they’re away from home, really far away, for the first time.’” p.149 Gene and Leper are walking in the field as Leper describes to him what his time in the military was like. Leper describes how he began to see male heads on female bodies.

Conclusion In A Separate Peace, Devon School is a bubble that keeps anyone in it innocent while the war is a needle that pops the bubble of innocence and forces kids to become men.