A Separate Peace - Friendship We have all experienced friendship in our lives; some of these bonds were long-lasting and some were not. A Separate Peace is a book about the friendship of high school kids. These boys attend an all-boys school called Devon School. It is said that: "Devon is sometimes considered the finest school in New England." “Devon was both studious and very athletic.” Gene Forrester, Phineas (Finny) and Elwin (Leper) Lepellier attend school in Devon. Author John Knowles sets the story during World War II. This period of time forces kids to think about which branch of the military they want to join. The main focuses of this book are war, conformity or agreement and friendship. War is a theme because throughout the book World War II invades Finny and Gene's separate peace. Conformity is a theme because Finny puts constant pressure on all the boys, especially Gene, to do rebellious things. They give in to peer pressure and do things like jump from trees even if it breaks the rules. They wanted to follow the crowd and Finny represents the crowd. Friendship is the most visible theme in the book and since friendship is based on need for each other, Finny and Gene are best friends. Finny has the things Gene needs and Gene has the things Finny needs. I will explain the meaning of a separate peace to Leper Lepellier, Phineas and Gene Forrester. When we first meet Leper, he is one of the boys standing at the base of the tree jumping. He refuses to jump from the tree into the river. It's stating, "Bidding for an ally." Leper would like to fit in by jumping from the tree, but Leper has his own separate peace, so he doesn't need to jump from the tree. He says he'll take the initiation leap to join Summer Session's Super Suicide Society, but he never does. When the other boys shovel snow from the train tracks to help a train with soldiers get to the military base, it really "brings the war home." Instead of helping the other boys in the war effort, Leper goes cross-country skiing at Beaver Dam. Leper does this to achieve a peace separate from the reality of war. Although Leper is the first to join the army, he receives a section eight discharge.