Without the minor characters the story "A Separate Peace" would be missing major points and it wouldn't run smoothly. The minor characters in the story play an important role in the way the story falls together and in causing Finny to die. The minor characters in this story set up kind of props for other things to happen in the story. For example Brinker's conflict with Gene. The first part of the conflict begins in the butt room where Brinker brings Gene after Finny has his fall. Brinker tries to tell everyone that Gene in fact did knock Finny off...
important part of the story. If Doctor Stanpole wasn't in the story, there wouldn't be any for-shadowing of Finny's death, and Finny might still be alive because a different doctor would have had to do the operation and he may not have done the same mistake.

Without the minor characters of this story, Finny would probably still be alive and the story would be lacking some of the for-shadowing of Finny's death. The minor characters in "A Separate Peace" play important roles in how the story falls together and how they all cause Finny to die in the end.