Character Traits in a Separate Peace In the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles, one of the main themes is the effects of realism, idealism and isolationism on Brinker, Phineas and Gene. Although not everyone can be described using one of these approaches to life, the approaches completely conform to these characters to create a realist, an idealist, and an isolationist; thus providing the basis for the novel. The realist is Brinker. Brinker's realism takes on a very morbid character after Gene decides not to enlist with him, because of Phineas' return to Devon. Brinker still sees things as they are, but begins to think that these things are bad. On page 122, he reportedly said: “Frankly, I don't see anything to celebrate, neither winter, nor spring, nor anything else. Brinker will examine every incident until he finds a dark side to it, because, in his mind, at least one side of everything is a dark side. We already have the foundations for our peak. Phineas (Finny) is the idealist. Like Brinker, Finny's approach undergoes dark metamorphoses. Before his accident, Finny saw the world as a glorious playground and life as a never-ending game. After his accident; However, Finny begins to see the world through the eyes of a paranoid old man who always sees something secret in everything. On page 106, Finny even goes so far as to ask Gene, "Do you really think the United States of America is in a state of war with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan?" This vision is a mental facade that only sets Finny up for a harder fall. Finally, there is the isolationist Gene. Gene's approach is austere from the start. It is Gene who generates the dark change in others. Gene looks for danger in anything he is emotionally close to. When he discovers danger, he ostracizes himself from anything that poses a threat to him. If he doesn't find danger, like with Finny, he creates it. On page 45, he tries so hard to create danger in Finny that he wrongly concludes that "Finny had deliberately decided to destroy my studies." It creates history