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 novel of education and tragedy. In this book, John Knowles shows us the life of teenagers during World War II. The 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 the war isn't as big as it seems. The glory of World War II lured Finny, Leper and Brinker only to reveal its true colors to them. Finny is very charismatic, athletic and everyone tends to love him, even the teachers. Finny wants to join the war and be part of what was going on. However, when Finny breaks his leg and becomes paralyzed, he denies the war. He says he now believes the war is fake and that it's just a huge plan. Just before he was about to undergo an operation for his broken leg, for the second time, Finny confesses his real reason for denying the war, he says: "'I have written to the Army, the Navy, the Marines and the Canadians and everyone else all winter. Didn't you know? 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 almost ready to write to someone in Russia.'” (Knowles). 181-182).“'I'd hate him everywhere if I wasn't in this war! , don't get me wrong, but if you can say that you were awake in front where there was a real shooting going on, then that will mean a lot to you for years to come" (Knowles 191). Here he continues to talk about how great the war is, but later decides that he doesn't want any part of the war. Towards the end of the book, Brinker realizes that the war wasn't great, but was actually very brutal and unfair. Now Brinker has changed forever. All the illusions that these three characters of A Separate Peace had are 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 reality the war was unjust and very brutal.