When
Gene goes to visit Leper we see how much Leper’s characteristics and personality
have changed throughout the novel, and how ironic it is that Leper knows the
reality of Gene’s actions. Leper has become the first to enlist in the war, however,
he doesn’t last long, and days later he sends Gene a telegram informing him
that he has “escaped.” Gene meets his old friend at the “Christmas Location,”
concluding that Leper must have “escaped” from spies. Gene was shocked when
Leper confesses that he really escaped from a section eight discharge. Leper goes
on to explain that “A section 8 discharge is for the nuts in the service, the psychos…You’re
screwed for life,” (Knowles 145). Gene seems agitated by his friend, and attacks
him when Leper says he knew that Gene was “always a savage underneath…Like that
time you knocked finny out of the tree,” (Knowles 145). Later in the chapter
the two boys seem to calm down and even go for a walk when Leper goes in depth
about his army experiences until Gene decides to run away. Throughout the novel
we see signs about how the war has changed people, but Leper seems to have
become a whole new person. He becomes “psycho,” in his own words, and even rants
strange, crazy stories. It is ironic that Leper comes across as strange and
insane, yet Leper is the only one at Devon that has tried to face the
inevitable. Leper called Gene to come to Vermont so that he could tell someone
about the part of himself that was impacted by the war. Leper says he has “admitted
a hell of a lot to myself,” (Knowles 145). Leper has come clean with himself,
and has thought about the past, but he says that Gene hasn’t accomplished the
same feat. In doing this Gene is suddenly faced with the reality of himself and
his actions, an identity that Gene is scared of, which causes him to attack
Leper. Ironically it is Leper who knows and addresses Gene about the truth of
his past, even if Leper appears to be “Psycho.”
1)
Do
you think that Leper is a psycho? Only partly? Why or why not?
2)
Do
you think that Leper will ever be the same, and how will this have an impact on
Gene’s army views?
3)
What
will Gene do after this? Will he tell his friends at Devon? Will he ever see
Leper again?
In response to Dylan's second question, I do not think that Leper will ever be the same. He was tossed into war, and believed that it could be fine: like the recruiter's video of the ski troops. However, he had that fantasy torn away from him, when he discovered what training for war was actually like. He says "Because they turned everything inside out. I couldn't sleep in bed, I had to sleep everywhere else," (Knowles, 150). Leper is accustomed to a life of small pleasures, such as snails and skiing, but training for the war takes all of that away. He begins to hallucinate, and gets a section 8 discharge for being "psycho". I think that Leper was broken by the prospect of the war, and by everything he went through in training for it, and I think that that will leave a certain scar on him for the rest of his life.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1:
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that Leper is a total psychopath, but is only partly psycho. This is because Leper still has the mental ability to realize/remember that Gene was the one who caused Finny's injury. Leper is also self-aware, and knows that he was/is trying too hard every day to please his parents. He goes back and forth between being psychotic and being sane, and he uses a "voice and intensity" that is not his when speaking to Gene (Knowles 143). Gene notices changes in Leper's personality when he says, "The careful politeness he had always had was gone" (Knowles 142). Leper's "dull expression" and "furious eyes" told Gene that something was not right with Leper (Knowles 142-143), but at the end of the chapter, Leper tries to convince himself that he isn't crazy. Leper tries to see "logic" in his thoughts, but Gene doesn't want to hear anymore of it, ever (Knowles 151).