Death is never a joyous topic to talk about because it is full of grief and sorrow. In the book The Separate Peace the death of Phineas is devastating to both the readers and the main character Gene. In the novel the doctor states the cause of death as heart failure due to bone marrow in the blood stream but any educated English student could realize that Finny did not die due to an accident. He died because he no longer had the will to survive. The main reasons for Finny wanting to give up on life where due to sports, the war and Gene.
             In the story Finny is portrayed as the Greek athletes of ancient Greece. He was energetic, vibrant and always excelling in physical activities. He even invented a game, which he gave the name blitz ball, a game where everyone heatedly compete but no one wins. His personality towards the end takes a radical change. He had broken his leg and was instructed that he could never play sports anymore. Sports which highlighted Finny's life could not be an avid part of him physically.
             The war also had a profound effect on Finny. World War II in some ways had an effect on everyone at Devon. Through out the story as many students were progressively talking about the war, Finny would deny that it even existed. He told Gene that it was just a conspiracy or a lie made up by the fat cats in Washington. It was not until the end of the novel where Gene realizes the deeper sense to Finny's ignorance about the war. The fact that Finny actually wanted to fight in the war may be because of the accident. Since he was no longer able to play modern sports he wanted to compete in some other way. For Finny the war was the ultimate competition, a struggle between two groups trying to come out on top. High of hopes, Finny was struck down when he received the rejection letters. Due to his leg he could not even participate in the war, no matter which country he tried to enlist. His dreams were never going to come true ...