This “separate peace” emerges using the two elements of innocence in times of war and . This concept of a separate peace is first portrayed through the main character Gene Forrester, a young boy on the brink of war. It is 1942, with the war growing seemingly closer we find Gene at an all boys boarding school named the “Devon” school in New England.
The excitement of the war is always crawling with excitement amongst the campus with testosterone fueled dreams of their own future battlefield victories, making the fact of war almost constantly present in any conversation.
But, before Gene and his best friends brace themselves for the imminent war, they indulge themselves into a carefree “gypsy” summer session at their school. With the radios and newspapers constantly emitting the pictures of wartime folklore, the boys at the Devon school find it, as Gene describes, “completely unreal.”
