The Way War Separates People

     War. When I think of this word I think of bloodshed, killing, and conflict. I also think about separation. War separates people. In every war, there are always two sides, two sides who disagree so much that they are willing to kill each other and destroy in order to get what they want.

      War is a big theme in the book I have been reading, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. Gene and Finny are two boys at a boarding school during World War II. Most of the boys are expected to join the army after they graduate. Since Gene and Finny are seniors, that time is approaching. The only problem for them is that Finny had been critically injured in an accident when he and Gene jumped off a tree together. Finny broke his leg really badly, and now he has to use crutches to walk. He can no longer participate in sports, which pretty much means he won't be able to be enlisted in the war. After the accident, Gene and Finny have grown apart. I think one reason for this is because the two boys used to be even, but now Finny is disabled. Gene has so much going for him - he's smart and intellectual, and compared to Finny now, he's in much better shape. At the beginning of the book, Gene and Finny were pretty equal, Finny was great at sports, Gene was great at academics. After the accident, they aren't equal, and Finny is changed and scarred forever. The war is another thing that separates them now. Finny can't be expected to join any war, or even become the athlete that everyone expected him to become. But Gene, the less sporty of the two, still has that option.

       The book starts out with Gene and Finny at the summer session of the boarding school, which was a relaxing time, and where the teachers go easy on all the students. Gene talks about how injuries like trick knees and punctured eardrums were just "minor complaints and not yet disabilities which would separate a few from the fate of the rest." He talks about how the boys were never tested for hernias or color blindness, that there was no registration for the draft, and that no one had to take a physical examination. Gene says that during the summer session he and the other boys were careless and wild, unlike the seniors who were constantly being driven and molded and armed for the war. Gene says that he thinks that he and his fellow lower classmates reminded the seniors "of what peace was like, of lives which were not bound up with destruction."

       I think that Gene was referring to how the war was changing the older boys. There was no longer time for fun and games. Gene also refers to how war separates the boys, the ones who are disabled and can't fight and the ones who are forced to fight. The teachers would soon start to separate the boys based on their physical condition and abilities. War can separate peers from each other, the ones who will have to fight and the ones who can't.

       I hate war and wish it didn't have to exist. So why does war exist? I think that war happens when one group, people, or country doesn't get what they want, in terms of land, power, etc. They want what the other has so much that they are willing to cause destruction. Besides for bloodshed and killing, war has another consequence: separation. In every war, there are two or more sides. These two sides want to destruct and destroy each other, in order to get what they want. War separates mankind, and it comes down to people killing other people. For instance, the Civil War was a war between the North and the South, and it came down to Americans killing Americans. If you're in a place that is in a war, you usually have to choose a side, and the other side becomes the enemy. War separates families. Now that Memorial Day is approaching, I think of all the families who lost a loved one in a war, whose family was tore apart due to tragedy brought on by war. War can also separate peers. Like Gene said in A Separate Peace, when a war approaches, boys are separated from each other, there are the ones who fight and the ones who can't, as demonstrated by Finny and him. I don't understand why things can't be peaceful, why humans can't just work together to solve problems instead of letting their problems separate them.