ESSAY ON "A SEPARATE PEACE" John Knowle's A Separate Peace is novel that focuses in on characters and their reaction to the world around them. Since the book was written in the forties the reader knows that the backdrop is WWII. The author uses the backdrop of war to show how young boys develop bonds of friendship. So, therefor, the two themes of war and friendship are intertwined throughout the novel. One major theme that Knowles uses is friendship, a friend is someone that you have personal regard for, and in this novel the two characters th ....