The Theme of Maturity in "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

<Tab/>One of the major themes in A Separate Peace is the coming of age. The theme of maturity can be viewed as a growing realization of the war in the school (in which the students realize that they have to enlist into the war "as men"), or the private and interior crisis one goes through (such as Gene discovering his identity as the novel progresses). The training and the sudden …

…to leave their peaceful state in the summer of 1942 and began to get used to the rigors of war and labor to fully understand the realities of war; at the same time, if Finny had not suffered and eventually died in the end, Gene would not have reflected on himself and grow from his experiences in the past. As Gene discovered in the end, true identity can only be reached through a state of maturity.