A Seperate Peace

At the end of A Separate Peace, Gene reflects back on everything that happened and says “My war ended before I even put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.” He, of course, does not mean this in a literal sense; he was not actually on active duty during school. Because the only person he kills (although indirectly) is Phineas, the statement “I killed my enemy there” might at first lead you to believe that Phineas is the “enemy” about whom Gene is talking. It is, however, more likely that Gene’s enemy was himself. His war was not the same one that engulfed the world around him, but rather the conflict between his easygoing personality and the darker part of him lurking just under the surface.
One can tell that the “enemy” is not Phineas from the enormous amount of praise Gene heaps upon him after his death. “He possessed an extra vigor, a heightened confidence in himself, a serene capacity for affection…” and �...