A Separate Peace “Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed” -Friedrich Nietzsche. A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a tragic, coming-of-age novel. In this book, John Knowles shows us the life of teenagers during World War II. These boys may seem fine with their cheerful attitude, but the raging war is still on their minds. They wonder what it would be like to become a war hero, how everyone would respect them, or if war isn't as big as it seems. The glory of World War II seduced Finny, Leper and Brinker only to later reveal its true colors to them. Finny is very charismatic, athletic and everyone tends to like him, even the teachers. Finny wants to join the war and be part of what's happening. However, when Finny breaks his leg and becomes paralyzed, he denies the war. He says he now believes the war is fake and just a big project. Just before he is about to undergo surgery on his broken leg the second time, Finny confesses the real reason for his refusal of the war. He said: “I wrote to the army and the navy and the marines and the Canadians and everyone all winter. Did you know? No, you didn't know that. I used the city post office as my return address. They all gave me the same answer after seeing my medical report on me. The answer was no soap. We can't use you. I also wrote to the coast guard, to the merchant navy, I also wrote personally to General de Gaulle, I also wrote to Chiang Kai-shek, and I was about to write to someone one in Russia. » (Knowles 181-182). "I'll hate this everywhere if I'm not in this war!" Why do you think I kept saying there was no war all winter... middle of paper ... because of that, don't get me wrong, but if you can say that you were standing where there was real shooting, then it will mean a lot to you in years to come” (Knowles 191). Here he talks about the greatness of the war, but he later decides that he doesn't want to be part of the war. Towards the end of the book, Brinker realizes that the war is not great, but is in fact very brutal and unjust. Brinker is now forever changed. All the illusions that these three characters from A Separate Peace had. now gone and they have been brought back to reality. They became completely different people. But at first they all wanted to go to war to become heroes and for glory, but they soon realized that it was all an illusion. none of this was true. But in fact, the war was unjust and very brutal. Finny, Leper and Brinker will never be the same..