Thursday, May 5, 2016
Assignment #10 (152-177) 3) Discuss Leper’s return and its impact on Gene and Finny before Brinker’s trial. What does Leper represent now that he is back at Devon and what conversation does his return trigger between Finny and Gene? (see pages 163-164). -Fiona
Leper represents the jolt back into reality that Finny and Gene experience once Leper returns to Devon. Gene and Finny have returned to their room when Finny reveals he saw Leper in the school halls, and saw for himself how ‘crazy’ and ‘psycho’ Leper had become. “‘Anyway,’ said Finny, ‘then I knew there was a real war on.’ ... ‘I wish you hadn’t found out. What did you have to find out for!’ We began to laugh again” (Knowles 164). What shocked Finny out of his fantasy world was seeing how the war changed shy, quirky Leper into a terrified dischargee who got Post Traumatic Stress Disorder without even going into combat. Although this is a laughing conversation - remembering how they lied to themselves about the world around them and created a dream of reality, Leper’s return also brings up details that Finny and Gene had ignored. Once they were no longer protected from reality, Finny and Gene had to face the patched-over divide in their friendship: Finny’s fall from the tree. During Brinker’s trial addressing what happened on the tree branch, Leper brings a new side to the story that could suggest that Gene bounced the limb and caused Finny’s fall, which causes Gene to once again worry about being exposed, and he feels guilty again. Leper’s return brings harsh reality and pops the bubble that is Finny and Gene’s fantasy, made up, separate peace.
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I agree. I think this also illustrates how Leper has lost is meaning, not only in the sense that he's changed, but that he has become a greater part of the story and let the boys down. When Finny says, “'Anyway,’ said Finny, ‘then I knew there was a real war on.’ ... ‘I wish you hadn’t found out. What did you have to find out for!’ We began to laugh again” (Knowles 164) you can see that the tension is clear, and is most likely based off of the fact that the one constant emblem of peace has been so changed.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this that when Leper comes to visit, he breaks the "separate peace" that Gene and Finny had together. Finny says, "then I knew there was a real war on" (Knowles 164). Leper's visit changes their thoughts about everything that they have imagined and dreamed of. Leper had broken the perfect world that the two of them had been in. I think that Leper is a symbol of reality to Gene and Finny. Finny realizes that the war is real when he sees Leper becoming crazy. Only real things are able to cause people that crazy.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Leper's return causes the "separate peace" that Gene and Finny have created to break. Before Finny saw the psycho Leper, he didn't believe that the war was real. After Finny realizes that the war can change an innocent Leper into something crazy, he believes that the war is real. "Then I knew there was a real war on" (Knowles 164). This return has caused reality to break apart the separate peace the boys have created.
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