In A Separate Peace," the narrator
returns to the scene of the crime, so to speak, years after the events that he relates
to the reader in the novel take place. The statement you ask about refers to the
narrator's reaction to those events.
The tree is only a
tree, when Gene returns and sees it again. The associations and mythical-like qualities
the tree held for him those years ago are no longer present for him. The tree is no
longer threatening or "bigger than life." Also, he did not despair over what he did to
Finny. He has learned to live with it. And his love for Finny was very much envy and
jealousy and obsessive suspicion. Gene's statement is a sophisticated response, in that
he doesn't try to explain away what he's done, or try to give some moralistic one-liner
to demonstrate some lesson in all this: he doesn't try to assign some cosmic
significance to the events.
Time has passed and nothing
lasts. Life continues. Gene has moved on, as, of course, we might assume other
characters have--except Finny.
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