read this its important

so a bunch of you guys are saying this is a gay love story? welllll i've got some news about what it's actually about. and this gets pretty deep hah

so finny's name is supposed to be like the fins on a fish because he represents the fish during the Devoninan period..dont know what that is? its that time period way back when water animals evolved into amphibians.. sooo finny didnt make that transition hence him being a "fish."

and gene's name is because a separate peace has an allusion to GENEsis with the story about adam and eve..check it out:
eve sees differences between her and adam (differences you know..hes a guy..shes a girl..yeeeah) and she then thinks of herself as unequal to adam. when shes tempted to eat the apple from the TREE OF KNOWLEDGE which relates to the tree that finny climbs in a separate peacce its because shes promised to be as wise as adam and God..so shes JEALOUS of him reacts by eating the apple so shes equal to adam and god

and then GENE (genesis) is also tempted because hes jealous of finny when he sees differences between them both (this whole seeing differences and seeing "otherness" is what causes the problems in this whole thing) so he shakes the branch to make finny fall in an attempt to make himself better since he realizes they are not the same

so do you get it? for those who are labeling this a "gay love story" i think maybe you're just being lazy and don't want to look for the deeper symbolism
and you don't have to believe this cos its just a literary analysis..buuuut i do have a lot of good evidence so i don't know why you wouldn't believe it

and by the way the devon school is based on phillips exeter adademy..the author john knowles went there..my brother goes there and there are some landmarks in the story that are at exeter

if you read this all, good for you for not being lazy