The title of A Separate Peace is probably the most intricate and confusing aspect of the whole novel.  It can be looked at from several different perspectives, only a couple of which I will address in this post.  The first view on the title that I’d like to examine is the piece of the boys-of-Devon puzzle that Gene represents.  Gene is studious and pretty careful most of the time, traits that are slightly different from those among his other friends at school, especially Finny.  His caution acts to separate Gene as bit from his friends, hence the puzzle piece idea.  Another possible meaning of the title is the peace that Gene gains at the end of the novel.  While his childhood best friend was still dead and he was still experiencing a great amount of guilt, Gene’s return o the school allows him to gain insight into what really happened to him.  While I doubt that Gene actually stayed in touch with people like Leper and Brinker, I do believe that they were all still intertwined with each other in adulthood because of their experiences.  This is exactly what makes the title significant.  Although the boys would always be a part of each other, one can assume that all of them but Gene got over Finny’s death within a year or so because they were not experiencing the guilt that Gene was.  The only way that Gene could come to terms with what he did, could finally have peace, was completely different then what I think the other boys did, which was most likely mourn Finny for the appropriate amount of time and then try to forget their feelings as young people will do.