John Knowles wrote the book A Separate Peace in 1960 and still we can relate to the events of the book. The Human heart is a source of hate. No matter how much time goes by here will always be hate. One of the side affects of hate is alienation.
             Alienation can be a result of difference in opinion, looks, mental capacity or other differences. Alienation can happen among students for any number of reasons; dressing differently, acting differently, or even saying something that is not easily understood. People hate what they cannot understand easily.
             Elwin Lepellier (Leper) was outcast due to the fact he thought differently of the world. He loved nature, he often daydreamed, and he was known for paying attention to detail. The boys were typical prep school boys of the period.
             Alienation can result in the hurting of a persons feelings or anger towards persons involved in the alienation. It can even get as bad as suicide or the shooting of masses of people. The consequences of alienation are infinite and impossible to predict.
             Leper's alienation resulted in Leper joining the army, which in turn drove him to insanity. His grip on reality gave in when he realized how hard the army pushed him. He went AWOL because he didn't want his future to be affected when people found out that he was insane.
             When people hear of something extreme happening on the news such as suicide or murder, they wonder why we didn't see the signs earlier. The answer is that we did, but we just didn't care to do anything about it. A solution to alienation would be just to pay more attention to a loner; a person could, rather than pass the outcast, stop and have a conversation and maybe invite the person to eat with them. There is no excuse to alienate someone, and people could easily find a way to avoid it.
             People giving him more time to understand why acted the way he did or even to just have to agree to disagree could...