A Separate Peace Chapter 3

Badminton. The beach Gene and Finny went to.

"Yes, Finny had practically saved my life" (25). But he also almost cost me my life. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have even been in that tree. The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session was a big success, right from the start. Finny and I were the Charter Members, and like I said before, we had to open every meeting by jumping from the tree ourselves. It was the first of many rules that Finny created. Despite the fact that I jump with him, without hesitation, I hated it. Each meeting we had, the limb seemed higher, thinner, scarier. But I would never have not jumped. If I didn't, I knew Finny would give me an earful of his rules. We were a club. "Clubs by definition met regularly; we met every night. Nothing could be more regular than that" (26). We started skipping classes, meals, and Chapel. Finny made his own rules that he listened to. They sounded in the form of Commandments. For example, "Never say you are five feet nine when you are five feet eight and a half" and "Always say some prayers at night because it might turn out that there is a God." His most urgent rule was "You always win at sports" (26). That meant everyone. You could never lose. It was the fun of the game. You always win, even if you're down by 15 points in the last 10 seconds of the game, you still won. Finny hated Devon's summer athletic program. He didn't like tennis, swimming, softball, and badminton. Especially badminton. So Finny invented 'blitzball'. Blitzball was played with a medicine ball, which is really heavy. Finny made it so that the ball was always in my hands. There aren't any teams in blitzball, so everyone was on their own. We played this game numerous times to keep us entertained.

I remember one day when Finny broke the school swimming record. The record was originally held by A. Hopkins Parker. Finny just wanted to see if he could beat him, and he did. He beat him by .7 seconds. Nobody else knows that Finny beat the record. For some reason, Finny doesn't like holding school records and having people make a big deal about it.

Later, we went to the beach, which was a lot of fun. "We had dinner at a hot dog stand" (39). Finny wanted to make sure that I had a good time, like it was his job to make me have fun. He called me his best pal, which was courageous to say, especially when you go to the Devon School. I was going to say it back, "but something held me back" (40). Maybe I didn't think Finny was my best pal. But that's ridiculous, isn't it?

A Separate Peace Chapter 2

Unfortunately, it was obvious we had skipped dinner. And today, Mr. Prud'homme came to our door. He's one of the guys that wears gray business suits all the time. He enforces all the rules. He's strict, and nobody can get passed him. That is, except for Finny. Finny explained everything to him, how we were swimming in the river and all that. He rambled on to Mr. Prud'homme, and it was obvious he was getting impatient. Mr. Prud'homme scolded us about how we had "already missed nine meals in the last two weeks" (14). Finny then continues to explain the situation. Somehow, Finny had managed to convince Mr. Prud'homme that we did nothing wrong, and that we shouldn't be punished. He explained that we just had to jump out of the tree, because at the end of the summer, we would be 17 and, if they lowered the age to 17, eligible for the draft to go to war, and we were just preparing. At tea later, Finny made some good points about the war, like what to be careful that our troops don't bomb. After the party, and for the rest of the summer as I recall, we spent our summer in complete selfishness. We continued jumping out of the tree, and we formed the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. The membership requirement was to jump from the tree. Each day, we had more and more people join, and Finny and I would start off the meetings by jumping from the tree into the river together. We met every night, and never missed a meeting, not even if we had exams to study for. We had gone to jump from the tree when I almost fell. I lost my balance. I could've broken my back if I fell. If I fell. But I didn't. If I had fallen a certain way, I'd be dead. Finny stopped me from falling. He pretty much saved my life.

A Separate Peace Chapter 1

That's me and Phineas. That's us in the tree.

So today, I went back to the school I left fifteen years ago, the Devon School. It brought back so many memories. I went to the tree that Phineas and I used to go to. Phineas, or Finny as many people called him, was one of those boys in school that was strong and athletic, he was handsome and was a total daredevil. "This tree flooded me with a sensation of alarm all the way to my tingling fingers" (8). I remember how we would climb it, and jump down into the river. I don't know why I let Finny talk me into doing these kinds of things. Standing next to that tree, it brought back the memory of when I jumped into the river for the first time. I was scared, but Finny convinced me to jump. I remember how Elwin told me that my jump was better than Finny's. I can remember exactly what Finny and I said to each other walking back through the woods.

"You were very good," said Finny good-humoredly, "once I shamed you into it."
"You didn't shame anybody into anything."
"Oh yes I did. I'm good for you that way. You have a tendency to back away from things otherwise" (10).

I denied it because it wasn't true. I don't back away from anything. Finny didn't argue with me after that, probably knowing I would get mad. We had to hurry back or we'd be late for dinner. Finny just kept walking. He was the kind of kid that "considered authority the necessary evil against which happiness was achieved by reaction" (11). As we hurried back, we got into a brief wrestling match. He won. It didn't surprise me really, since he was so strong. He liked the fact that I could accept when he was right and I was wrong. He liked that I can keep up with his strength when we're having fun. As we got back to our room we read our Hardy assignments. We heard the senior boys coming back to the dorms at 10 o'clock. They were allowed out later than us. We noticed that lights began to shut off. We undressed and I put on my pajamas. We said our prayers, and our summer school day ended.

That was a good day. And I remember looking forward to the next day, as long as I had Finny with me.