A Separate Peace

Thesis: The two rivers in A Separate Peace symbolize good and evil.

Devon’s course was revealed by some familiar hills; it emerged up among farms and forests, passed at the end of its route through the school grounds, and then threw itself with the little display over a small waterfall beside the diving dam, and into the murky Naguamsett. There were two rivers at Devon, divided by a small dam. The two rivers symbolize how Gene and Finny are different from each other.
Gene has a definite dark side beneath the surface, though he appears to be a good, honest person in his everyday life. Gene seems filled with fears and insecurities; his great worry, is that nothing has changed since adolescence-not the school buildings and not, most important, himself.
A SEPARATE PEACE It was a hot and humid summer, while World War Two was in progress. The summer holidays was the time when all the friends were together at the Devon School. The students at this school were enjoying...