Maginot Lines In John Knowles A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace by John Knowles shows that Gene, Finny, and Leper set up Maginot Lines that are ineffective and eventually lead to their own destruction. Gene builds himself a mental Maginot Line against Finny, leading to a loss of self-identity. A Maginot Line was a defense structure that France built along its border with Italy and Germany during WWII, which included machine gun posts, concrete walls, tank obstacles, and artillery casements. Gene is becoming a very dedicated student, trying to be better than Finny, and realizing that Finny was also working hard in school, for “The new attacks of studying were his emergency measures to save himself. I redoubled my effort” (25). Gene, realizing that Finny is working hard to better his grade, begins to study to become top student and prove himself to Finny. Gene was stunned when he realized that “he [Finny] had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not

Leper’s Maginot Lines were not only set up against Gene and Finny, but also the majority of his friends. When Gene hears about Leper’s enlistment, he thinks to himself “his enlistment seemed just another of Leper’s vagaries, such as the time he slept on top of Mount Katahdin in Maine”. By doing this he is able to shield himself against his friends, using the physical distance he places between them.While Leper and Gene were discussing the war, Gene brought up brinker and “he [Leper] broke into sobs…. Hoarse, cracking sobs broke from him”(79). When Leper returned from the war, not only was he unstable, but his Maginot Lines that he set up to distance himself from his friends began to crumble. Leper set up Maginot Lines to keep his friends out and doing so, when he wanted to let them back in, they did not want to return. He lost the friendship of Gene, Finny and