A Separate Peace

The phrase “a separate peace” is used in the book when Gene is recalling the winter carnival that Phineas initiated. “…Phineas recaptured that magic gift for existing primarily in space, one foot conceding briefly to gravity its rights before spinning him off again into the air. It was his wildest demonstration of himself, of himself in the kid of world he loved; it was his choreography of peace.” (Page128). Gene describes Phineas in a sense such that he has always been carefree and lived without worries of what is happening in the world around him. “His choreography of peace” is how Gene describes Phineas’ peace. He chooses the word choreography because there are hundreds of distinctly different choreographies knows, and a new form of choreography can be invented any day, by any body. Phineas has created his own “choreography”, or a way of keeping his own peace, that is different from the other boys at Devon.
Phineas’ way of keeping peace is by denying t...