Friends or Foes: You Decide In A separate Peace, By John Knowels, the theme shown is that close friends make the worst enemies. Over the course of the novel this theme is shown through the symbolic representations of Gene and Finny’s Freindship. In a story Gene tells finny, Gene talks about a fire which is a metaphor for the state of their friendship. In the story it says “There was a fire. It was just a grass fire out behind our house. We… took some brooms and beat it, I guess what we really did was fan it because it kept getting bigger…” Fires are consuming, known to spread quickly and are generally a symbol of rage therefore the fire in the story is a symbol for the consuming feelings that is starting to put a strain on Gene and Finny’s relationship. The simple feelings of jealousy and competition felt between Gene and finny (as referenced to in other chapters) is turning into an even bigger feeling of rage inside Gene and no matter how much he tries to beat this fire within him or get rid of his feelings, they turn into an even bigger rage. During a conversation between Gene and Finny, Finny’s mention of the bond between him and winter is a representation between the bond between him and Gene. During the conversation Finny says “What I mean is, I love winter and when you really love something, then it loves you back in whatever way it has to love.” Gene replies “I didn’t think this was true, my seventeen years of experience had shown this to be more false than true.” In the wintertime the weather becomes very cold. Since love is usually associated with warmth (hence the phrase Heart-warming) this Coldness felt during winter is a representation of absence of love. Even though Finny might love Gene, there is a lack of love in Gene’s heart for finny. In the novel Leper also Mentions a symbol of Finny and Gene’s relationship while describing