“My war ended before I ever put on the uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.” (204)

This sentence represents the theme of the novel,  A Separate Peace, and Gene’s goal. The theme is to find peace within oneself. Gene struggles throughout the whole story for he is battling his jealousy and guilt. Those are his enemies that keep him from being happy. Most people struggle with being happy from time to time. In our society, most people are upset, because they long for what they don’t have instead of being grateful for what they do have. If more people learned to be grateful for what they have, maybe there would be more people happy like how Gene is at the end of the book. Gene is forgiven by Finny and Gene is relieved of is guilt. Gene no longer has conflict within himself. He feels liberated and is at peace with himself and the world around him. Even as Gene enters the war, he never calls the people he is fighting against the enemy. Our enemies are the one we create for ourselves and we must find a way to overcome. I wonder if everyone found peace if there would be a lot less fighting between people. The greatest obstacle that may keep us unhappy in life may be ourselves.