A Separate Peace: Chapter 13

If I were the author, I would have perhaps left out this chapter. I personally did not find it necessary to the plot, although it provides some reflection on how Finny's death changed Gene, and the war changed his friends. The whole part with Brinker's father wanting to be young to be in the war was just pitiful. I felt bad for that man who felt that someone's whole worth and existence depended on their role in such slaughter. The whole line where Gene said he never killed anyone in the war, and he never hated the enemy was because he killed his enemy at school. He never points out exactly who his enemy was, whether it was the darkness in him or Finny. Gene talks about how Finny was the best because the worst never game out in him because he never had an enemy, but Gene's enemy was not brought on by the war but rather Gene conquered it before. I was not a fan of this part, because while it makes the reader think, I felt that it really detracted from the plot.