In "A Separate Peace," Are Gene and Finny Gay?

Devon students are the "cream of the crop," the finest young men American aristocracy can produce. We hesitate to sympathize with kids who rail at a lack of maid service in 1942, but the fact that they are an exemplary, privileged class has everything to do with the eventual formulation of Knowles's theme.

No, I don't think Gene and Finny are gay. But a huge undercurrent of homophobia runs through the story, and Leper, who is entirely out of place among this crowd of preppy boys, might be gay - not to suggest there's anything wrong with that. If he's not gay, he's out of place for other reasons, among which, he's a tender-hearted loner.

The author draws together three "loners," Gene, Finny, and Leper, all of whom have tender hearts that they try to conceal to varying degrees. Despite their efforts to avoid it, an intense love/hate relationship develops between Gene and Finny, and if you don't read closely, you miss the sincere and mutual friendship between Leper and Gene, which happens during the summer before the "accident" in the tree.

Devon is ALL MALE, no girls allowed. However, early in the story, when Finny speaks of himself and Gene and Leper from a "sexual point of view," something odd is happening. It's easy to dismiss it immediately rather than to investigate, still easier to miss it completely; certainly, the other boys wouldn't want to "go there."

To state it clearly and simply, Finny and Gene find love at Devon, and Leper is left out. "Two boys in love" just doesn't work at a male prep school in 1942, even if their love is strictly Platonic, and it apparently is.

I've seen boys kissing on my athletic teams. So the rules for male-to-male bonding must have loosened up a bit in recent years. They'd just give each other "pecks" for the most part, but when they'd win something big, they'd do a lip-to-lip thing.

I ignored it. If I'd interposed and tried to stop it, I guess I'd have been doing something out of place. Then again, I don't know.

There are certainly taboos for the other extreme: If I'd done a Jerry Sandusky thing and taken part in the kissing, it would have been wrong - not that I ever had the slightest inclination to do so.

Teachers and coaches grow close to their students and athletes, without question. Most of us are reassured by rules of society that require female teachers to maintain their distance and manly men to ignore their tender emotions and remain separate. But it's difficult, and rarely any of our business, to control relationships among students.

A Separate Peace attempts to sift through many aspects of human relationships, with a special emphasis on the "manly" ones. Men get just as envious as women sometimes, and just as defensive. But unlike women, who don't have as much testosterone flowing through their veins, men develop harsh prejudices that too often stop their thought processes, and when they begin acting on these prejudices, they can be pretty dangerous.

This novel's importance has been overlooked. It's too often thought to be this little story about two boys and a tragedy at school, but it deserves more respect than that. Knowles explores the dimensions of love and discovers in its roots the same food for discord among individuals and societies that propogates conflict on the largest scale.

Maybe we'd be better off in the world with more female heads of state.

It's the end of January right now. I should have the study guide up and ready in a few more days. If you have other stories you'd like me to explore for high school and/or university language arts programs, let me know. I've got my own list of a dozen or more. I need to get back to Dickens soon, and I absolutely must deal with Julius Caesar properly as well.