Julia Schwartz

English I H (A)

A Separate Peace Journal Entry (2)

“…when you really love something, then it loves you back, in whatever

way it has to love…” (103)

                These are Finny’s words, and perhaps they mean as much the opposite as they do the way they are written. By this, Finny intends to convey the message that if you feel enough emotion towards something, it will always feel the same way back, in whatever way is possible. Finny uses the emotion love, but this philosophy could apply to hate, ignorance, peace, resentment, or gentleness.

                At this point in Gene’s reflection, Phineas has not yet acknowledged the legitimacy of the war occurring around him. While he hears about it constantly, he believes that it is just a ploy of a bunch of “old, fat men,” and is just to get young men out of their jobs, and become wealthy. However, the topic of war has not come up directly yet between Gene and Finny. In this passage, Finny is talking about winter, and how it can love him.

                To take this idea of Finny’s one step further, one could switch the verb to almost anything and keep Finny’s philosophy unchanged, so you could substitute ignore. Perhaps Finny believes that ‘if you ignore something enough, it will ignore you back, in whatever way it has to ignore.’ Phineas certainly does not want to be affected any more by the war, and he surely is ignoring it in whatever ways he can. By doing this, Finny could think that the war will leave him alone; that it will not take away any of his friends to either fight- or be killed in action… or himself. Finny is obviously scared of the war, and also very confused about the issues that are thrust towards him. Between a war raging in Europe, his leg being brutally broken and thus losing all his ‘glamour,’ and having a subtle argument with his best friend, Gene, Finny has good reason to be confused.

                It could be concluded that Phineas is scared of the war, and wants it to leave him alone. Perhaps he thinks that if he ignores it enough, it will ignore him back, as he believes that if he loves something enough, it will love him back. Of course, it is inevitable that Finny will be affected by the war; it is impossible for anyone living in wartime to remain unaffected by the war, in either a glaringly obvious way, or a way that is so discreet perhaps they themselves do not even realize it. It seems as though Finny is trying to get away from the war, that he feels its reach extending slowly towards him and his peaceful environment at the peaceful Devon School, and his way of getting away from it is not by running, but by hiding behind a shield of ignorance.