A Separate Peace was written by active author John Knowles from his real experiences and personal struggles. Knowles attended Phillips Exeter Academy, an exclusive New Hampshire prep school, for two summer sessions in 1943 and 1944. This book vaguely outlines his experiences at Exeter with himself as the main character but under the name of Gene Forrester. Knowles' novel tells the story of a young man's struggle to escape from himself and his world, to achieve a …showed first 75 words of 771 total…

…showed last 75 words of 771 total…through few problems and has no inner struggles. Even after Finny's accident, Gene insists that Finny has never been conflicted, after Finny has tried so hard to avoid implicating his friend despite his anger and bitterness. Finny is far more complex, as we find out at the end, than Gene would like to believe him to be; and as Gene finds out, what is on the surface sometimes does not denote what is hidden underneath.