Thursday, May 10, 2018
Assignment #10 (152-177): 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) (William)
Finny is able to, once he “heard that about Leper, [... know] that the war was real.” He then confronts the truth about the war, and admits to the world that, “… [he] always knew, but... didn’t have to admit it.”(163) Finny has to abandon his fantasies of the war and Olympics, what he hoped the world was like, which causes him to be more suppressed. After hearing that Leper had come back to campus, Gene starts to become anxious. Since Leper knows that he had caused Finny's fall, it makes him try to make Leper seem untrustworthy. His first retort is after hearing that Leper had been hiding in the bushes, where he says that “He must be crazy”.(163) Afterwards he starts to “involentarily me[e]t Finny’s” eyes. Without even needing to think, Gene tries to discount everything that Leper is about to say. Although they are each impacted differently, they both will see the world with a different affect. The conversation that stems from the change was one of recollection of when they had seen the world differently, a time when they hadn’t needed to think about being accused or comprehend how awful the world can be. To Gene Leper is a threat that causes anxiety, but to Finny he is a wakeup call that the world is not as nice as he had envisioned.
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I agree with William that Leper is a "wake up call" for Finny that some things are not as he believed. I also think that Finny loses his "Separate Peace" that separated him from the crowd of fearful Devon boys. Finny was able to achieve peace by denying the war, and hiding behind his injury in Devon. Finny's peace is able to take away some of the fear that consumes Devon, and we see how events like the snowball fight and winter carnival help Finny restore the innocence and fun that filled the summer session. However, Leper represents reality, and when he returns bearing the effects of war, Finny's peace is shattered. Finny was able to deny the war for so long, but in this chapter he says that "If a war can drive somebody crazy, then it's real alright," (Knowles 163). Finny never believed that the war was going on because he never had proof. He says that he doesn't believe books or teachers, but when he saw Leper's condition, it was all the living proof he needed. Overall Leper represents reality crashing down on Finny, who once lived in "A Separate Peace."
ReplyDeleteI agree with William that Leper shows Finny that the war isn't a hoax like Finny previously thought. Finny doesn't think much of the war and thinks its fake. Finny creates a fake bubble protecting him from what the war is really like and what the war can do to you. He realizes Leper is in a bad spot when he hears and sees what he's doing saying, "He must be crazy,"(Knowles 163). Also saying "that the war was real," (Knowles 163) after hearing about Leper. Finny learns a lot about the war after hearing about Lepers state destroying this bubble he created.
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