In the novel “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles, the aged Gene reflects back on his life at the military school Devon and the fateful accident of Finny falling out of the tree that was supposed to be a symbol of Gene’s and Finny’s undying friendship in the Super Suicide Society, but also a place of forced fear for Gene. The fall breaks Finny’s leg and permanently puts him out of the war for good and encourages his fancy of there never even being a war, merely (we discover later) because he knew he could never be involved in it. But the fall was not an accident; Gene had been upset that he’d failed and important trig test, and felt Finny was directly responsible for it for “forcing” Gene to go to the beach with him instead of studying, and so jounced the limb and caused Finny to fall. When Finny leaves to have some bed-rest at home, “winter” sets into Devon, both figuratively and literally, for all the joy has left with the jokester Finny, and during this time Gene focuses fully on his academics, convinced that 1) he must be as equally good in this as Finny is in sports and 2) finny was trying to hinder him from this all along.

But then Finny comes back, Gene loves him again, and the winter is not so cold anymore. So, with out any hesitation, Finny drags Gene back into old shenanigans and convinces Gene of the “falseness” of the war, and also of the ’44 Olympics that Gene must be prepared for. The weeks pass and Gene slips further and further under Finny’s control, going easily along with Winter carnivals and snow ball fights. Then the time comes when the first boy leaves Devon for the war and it turns out to be the unexpected Leper. Things mostly spiral down hill from here as the boys lose motivation and when Gene visits Leper next, he’e found that his old friend has lost his mind in the idea of war. Time wears on still and Finny’s leg is healing properly, until Brinker, as justice driven as can be, throws Gene and Finny into an interrogation that upsets Finny so much that he storms out, and clumsily falls and breaks his leg again. “A simple fracture” the school physician confirms, but Finny unexpectedly keels over and dies… apparently the doctor didn’t deserve his degree and let some bone marrow flow to his heart, thus killing him, while he was resetting the bone.

What a fantastically spectacular way to die. Cheers to you Finny.

But Gene finds his peace in Finny’s death and finds that all of his anger is gone with it, and while the war moves into Devon, Gene continues his life with out remorse for this actions in causing Finny’s death, because to gene, he was a great friend that was also his personal enemy.