A Separate Peace By John Knowles: A Character Analysis

The dilemma Brinker Hadley faces in A Separate Peace by John Knowles, parallels what many students at Devon School are experiencing in the harsh wartime. Pride and honor compels all the students to want to enlist into the fearful war. Brinker Hadley proudly declares to everyone that he too will enter the war to show that he is a fearless, powerful, and a superior leader. However, the impact and reality of the war forces Brinker to continuously change his personality, and drastically alter his views toward the war. Brinker appears to all the students at Devon as an industrious leader for his involvement and prestige in various school clubs. Confidence is a key characteristic Brinker portrays, and he shows this off when he starts writing poetry about the war and telling everyone that he too will become a soldier. In fact, after
Brinker's father, Mr. Hadley, tells the students “you boys are the image of me and my gang in the old days" (190). Mr. Hadley envies the boys for their opportunity to be able to participate in the war, and then leaves telling them that they should feel honorable to be in the war. However, Brinker shows that he actually resents the idea of war. Initially, Brinker appears to be more mature than anyone else because of his acceptance toward the war. It is not until after his father speaks that he shows his true feelings when he states, “Left out! He [Mr. Hadley] and his crowd are responsible for it! And we're going to fight it” (193). He feels that his father's generation is causing this war, and everyone in Brinker's generation has to suffer. He accepts that he must go to war despite his rejection toward it, he probably will be killed, and that “it gives [him] a pain” (193). By accepting that he must face these issues, Brinker has shown that he has matured and is ready to face the conflicts of war, orders, and adulthood, which no other boys have