#2 Title significance

Several things could be inferred from “A Separate Peace.” This is actually a military term.  For instance, if you are allied with another country, you could refuse to fight their enemy.  This would keep you out of the fray and give you “A Separate Peace.” But what does this title mean within the novel? There is only one mention of the title within the novel, at the end of chapter 9. “It wasn’t the cider which made me surpass myself, it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace.” What if “A Separate Peace” were taken literally, as in changing “Peace” to “Piece?”  This title would make much more sense.  Devon seems like it is separate fro the world.  The entire world is at war, while all the boys at Devon while still in their youth are at peace. This also shows how that not only Devon is separate from the world, but that the youth of that time period were also different from the older generation of that time. The older generation of men seem to be more at war than the boys who will eventually go on to fight in the war.  We know this because Mr. Hadley complains and says how jealous he is of the boys for being able to fight.