A Separate Peace: Truth, Lies, and Violence The novel A Separate Peace is a story about the truth, lies and violence. The story is about two main characters Gene and Phineas . They are best friends through out the story, but they are totally opposite from one another. Gene is the narrator of the story. At the beginning of the story , we see that Gene is interested in two things, the Academic Building (First Building) and the tree. He visits these places and we find out that his worst experiences happened at these places. Before you can really understand Gene’s personality you have to have so