Since Leper is “section 8” (“for nuts in the service”), explore the irony of Leper’s statement “always were a savage underneath.” Take into consideration that Leper contacted Gene. Why is this important?- Valentina

  There is real significance in the scene between Leper and Gene when Gene leaves Devon.
After getting a Telegram from Leper telling Gene he “escaped”, Gene travels all the way to Vermont to see Leper.
Gene thinks that Leper escaped from spies and other strange
things but we find out that Leper escaped before he was
“blacklisted” in a way and was going to be discharged due to mental issues.
They began to fight and Leper said “ You always were a lord of the manor,weren’t you?
A swell guy, except when the chips were down.
You were always a savage underneath… I wasn’t thinking about you.
Why the hell would I think about you? Did you ever think of me?...Like a savage underneath.
Like, like that time you knocked Finny off the tree”(145).
Immediately a rage came upon Gene, 
and he kicked the chair Leper was sitting in.
This statement is ironic because Leper could say
this now wherever he went and no one would believe
him because he’s crazy, but at the same time
he is speaking the truth. In some ways, Gene is a “savage underneath,”
and the “crazy” kid, Leper, sees this.
When he said that Gene pushed Finny off the tree it seemed as though
he was trying to set Gene off so he could show that Gene was actually a savage.
That is probably why he also invited Gene to his house in the first place.
John Knowles creates this scene to show that Gene does not feel safe away from Finny and Devon, and that he still needs Finny in his life as he matures.
   
-Why do you think Leper hates Brinker?
-What do you think happened to Leper to trigger his episodes? Why?
-Why do you think Gene acted like that at the end of the chapter?

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 30, 2020 at 11:51 AM

    At the end of the chapter, Gene reacts very emotionally to Leper's state of mind and what the war has done to his friend. Gene says, very harshly, that he didn't care what happened to his friend during the war and that he didn't want to hear about it. Gene has been very kind and a good friend to Leper this entire book, and this was very out of character. Gene was just in denial of his impeding future, and didn't really mean what he said about Leper. When Leper was gone, Gene and the rest of his class made up stories about what he was doing, idolizing his decision to enlist. This fantasy of their future came crashing down for Gene now that he has seen the reality of his future life. Gene knows that he is either going to enlist soon or he is going to get drafted, meaning he is going to have to face the same horrors Leper did. Now that his fantasy of his future has been jeopardized, Gene tries to go back to his life not knowing the truth, which is why he acts so rude at the end.
    What do you think Gene will say when he gets back to Devon?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousApril 30, 2020 at 12:14 PM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousApril 30, 2020 at 12:17 PM

      What do you think Gene will say when he gets back to Devon?

      After Gene’s experience with Leper, he’ll have to go back to Devon with it in the back of his head. I think that most likely, once he returns, he will try to explain what had happened, but based on his difficulty in discussing Finny’s accident and his connection, I don’t believe he’ll actually be able to discuss it all. Gene clearly is a very anxious person, which is why he has difficulty talking about things he feels guilty about. In the past, it has been pushing Finny, but now, he’ll most likely have the guilt of yelling at Leper, and leaving him all alone, while he is clearly not thinking straight. Once he gets back, he’ll either be forced to admit he just left him, or act like nothing ever happened. And based on how Gene’s treated the Finny situation, the second option seems most likely. I predict that he’ll just say everything is fine, and he’ll basically do whatever he can to make everyone think everything’s ok, just as he’s always done. But he will still have the guilt of leaving Leper, and the fear of what his once calm friendly friend had become. I predict that the issue will become even bigger once Leper returns because he could expose Gene for not only lying about what had happened, but also about what he had done to Finny. But we’ll just have to wait for a few chapters until Leper makes his return, and see where John Knowles takes the story from there.

      How do you think the student body at Devon will react to Gene’s story?
      Do you think Leper will expose Gene to the whole school?

      Delete
    3. AnonymousApril 30, 2020 at 1:52 PM

      How do you think the student body at Devon will react to Gene’s story?
      Do you think Leper will expose Gene to the whole school?

      I think Gene's story will not have a good reaction by the student body. Based on how his butt room stories about Finny’s absence, it has become clear that Gene is not able to create “stories” very well. I think Gene is not going to tell exactly every detail correctly, like how he did with Finny’s injury. The rest of the students at Devons probably won’t believe what he says, and worse, I think this will screw up his relationship with Finny even more. I think Finny is going to lose trust in Gene and create an even more toxic codependent relationship. Also, I don’t see a way where Leper could expose Gene considering he is no longer at Devons. Originally the only reason Gene received his telegram was because they are “best friends,” and it would seem uncharacteristic of Leper to expose Gene to the entire school.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousApril 30, 2020 at 1:56 PM

    I think in this chapter when Gene goes to Leper's house it is a bad idea all together. The whole time they just seem frustrated with each other but I do think it is a significant part in the book. I think the main reason or the cause of Leper's "episodes" is because of what he has seen when he was at the war. I think these images in Leper's head is causing him to not act his normal self. As for Gene I think he is experiencing something similar to this. For example when Gene and Leper are on a walk and Leper is telling the stories of the war Gene bursts out and gets mad at Leper and the reason is that Gene can't stand listening to these stories because it's to hard for him to hear them. For this reason I think that when Leper returns back to Devon the friendship between Gene and Leper will be very awkward.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousApril 30, 2020 at 5:28 PM

    Leper, a quiet and innocent young boy, was not the first person you would expect to go to the war. He lived in his own world unbothered by the ongoing war and stuck to what he liked to do. Leper wouldn't decide to go to the war to serve his country, he was tricked by the skiing video. Leper was not ready to be exposed to the outer world and it is evident after reading this chapter the repercussions of him going to the war. It is ironic that John Knowles had Leper say, "Everything has to evolve or else it perishes," because we see how Leper did not evolve to the life outside of Devon, and in a way he perished. When he was at war he was exposed to things he hadn't seen before and didn't know how to handle them. He was far from what he was used to and didn't have any support, he was on his own, just like when you mature. At war he lost his innocence and his soft personality, his psychotic visions were all about the horror of transformation and what ultimately led to these "episodes". After Leper explained his time at war Gene's perception of the war and outside life completely changes. He now realizes the harsh reality of maturing and his only way to cope with it is to lash out and run away. He retreats to Devon in seek of finding his innocence and straying away from reality. But the truth is he can't run away from the truth forever, at some point he will graduate and be forced to face the war. It will be interesting to see if he accepts the harsh reality of the world he's living in, or if he recedes back into his alternate world with Finny.

    ReplyDelete
  4. HadleyApril 30, 2020 at 5:35 PM

    What do you think Gene will say when he gets back to Devon?

    When Gene goes back to Devon, I believe that he will keep quiet of what happened during his journey to Leper's. I think he will keep quiet because he is now paranoid that Leper knows what happened at the tree and that he doesn't want the truth to come out. Every time he will think about his trip out to Leper's house, he will think of his guilt at the tree which Leper reminded him of. I think he will have to lie in order to not let the truth out, as obviously all the kids will want to know what happened during his journey. If he starts telling the boys the truth of what happened at Leper's, I think he will have more guilt. He might not tell the whole truth by leaving out what Leper said about the tree accident. When Gene goes back to Devon, I believe he will lie to hold back and avoid the truth of what happened at Leper's and what happened at the tree.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousApril 30, 2020 at 6:53 PM

    I think that these episodes are Leper's way of coping and trying to stay in control of his situation. As he is leaving Devon, he proclaims that people have to change to survive and that enlisting was just that. In reality, he was not adapting to a new mindset. He was using this profile to hide, thinking he could fly under the radar the entire war. Then, when he reached the camp and realized that war is war, and that whatever division he chooses, he was going to face grueling and treacherous events. Going to the camp made the war feel 'real' to him, something the boys still staying a Devon are subconsciously sheltered from. Leper is was always described to be in his head, thinking to only himself. He tries to do this once at the camp but fails to find any small beauties to admire in the thinks that surround him. He panics, desperate to be back to the simple and easy life of his youth, he reverts to making things up and seeing what he expects to see. And when in war, that is scary. Before, the war was thought to be fought at a distance. It was accepted that people die but it was so gruesome nobody would ever want to stop and think about it. The amputated leg which is actually a broom shows this, the reality of pain and fears of war manifested in a dire injury. He twists the people around him into the war-loving, inhuman monsters he begins to think of them as.

    Will Leper return to Devon?

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousApril 30, 2020 at 7:23 PM

    I don’t think Leper will fully expose Gene to the whole school, but he will use the information against him. After seeing Gene’s outbreak when the subject was brought up, Leper now knows that this is what will get Gene to instantly break. After Gene decided to leave Leper at the end of the chapter, it was a rude thing to do. He left him alone telling him that he didn’t want to hear him talk anymore. This may have pissed Leper off which could lead him to expose Gene, but he is in so much confusion at the moment that it would be one of his least concerns. If he were to use it against Gene, it would probably be used to prevent Gene from telling everyone as to why he left the army in the first place. Once Leper decides to return to Devon, Gene will be very cautious in the way that he treats him to prevent any “news” from slipping out.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousMay 1, 2020 at 5:13 AM

    I believe that Leper's episodes were triggered by him being away from the unfamiliar for an extended period. Although at Devon Leper always seemed to be living in his own world, he was constantly surrounded by what was familiar to him. Leper was not expecting such a shock of the unfamiliar when he enlisted. He simply saw what interested him (the ski-racing) and acted upon his interest towards that, rather than wanting to enlist is a war, something far beyond what he was prepared for. It is possible that Leper, like Gene's underlying aggression, always had some sort of strange behavior hidden underneath, but constantly being around what he knew suppressed that behavior. However, enlisting and facing such a shock of the unfamiliar likely caused his behavior to surface.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousMay 1, 2020 at 6:27 AM

    In the end of the chapter, Gene ran away to be by himself, because he was in an emotional state. He couldn't bear to see Leper broken, and he see's what the war has already done to him. Leaper was seen as an innocent, and quiet kid, and I think Gene feels even worse because of that. Before this scene, Gene was saying that he didn't care what the war had done to Leaper. When they go for the walk, and Leaper tells him everything, Gene couldn't bear to listen to Leaper. At that point, his guilt took over as it always does. First with Finny, now with Leaper, and he now feels that he can never get rid of this curse.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chapter 8: What does the conversation about enlisting reveal about Finny and Gene’s relationship (p107-108)? Provide at least two specific examples. - Ollie McNamara

In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, while Finny is out of school due to  his leg injury, Gene decides that he wants to enlist in the war.  When Finny finds this out  he becomes very irritated with Gene and exclaims, “‘Enlist!’ Cried Finny at the same time.   His large and clear eyes turned with an odd expression on me.  I had never seen such a look  on the before.’” (107) Without the ability to play sports, Finny feels lost in his life and is  jealous that Gene can go to the war.  When Gene realizes this he responds to Finny telling him  it was just a crazy idea anyway, and even shames Brinker to make Finny feel better:  “Enlist! What a nutty idea.  It’s just Brinker wanting to get there first again.  I wouldn’t  enlist with you if you were General MacArthur’s eldest son.”(108) With this new dynamic  in Finny and Genes' relationship, Gene is compromising his wants and needs to make F...
Read more

On pages 52-54, how does Gene’s view of their relationship change? (Be sure to explain his usage of enmity). What does he think of it? How do you know this? Why does he feel this way? Do you think it is accurate? Why or why not? - Medina

In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene see’s his friendship with Finny differently after he had some thoughts about whether Finny was actually his friend or if Finny was just trying to bring him down. Gene see’s Finny as someone who is trying to prevent him from getting good grades in school rather than as his best pal like he viewed him before. Gene believes that all the things Finny would do with him was just meant to take away time from him studying. Gene thinks to himself, “That explained Blitzball, that explained the Nightly meetings of the Super Suicide Society, that explained his insistence that I share all his diversions.”(53) This shows that Gene thinks that Finny invited him to these things just so that Gene could do worse in school. Gene convinces himself that Finny calculated all of this just so that he could get ahead of Gene. It is clear that Gene thinks this due to what he thinks to himself. Gene thinks to himself that, “It was all cold trickery,...
Read more

4.) Part of this reading focuses on Leper. How is he characterized? What do we learn about him? Provide some specific details from the reading to support your answer. - Nnema Epee-Bounya

In this reading in A Separate Peace , Leper is used to represent the innocence and freedom before the impending war. While the rest of his class worked on the railroads to help trains filled with soldiers, Leper traveled around to find a beaver dam. Leper doesn’t seem to have the war and his dangerous future on his radar, he is just enjoying his days in his sheltered environment. Brinker Hadley, on the other hand, represents what Gene and the rest of his class’s life will be like once they graduate from Devon or decide to enlist. Brinker only focuses on what will happen when they leave Devon instead of focusing on his numbered days left at the school. These opposing personalities show the extreme approaches of coming to terms with being drafted. Leper’s way of dealing with the outside circumstances irritates and even offends Brinker Hadley as “‘That’s the kind of place I’m in with a world war going on. A school for photographers of beaver dams.’” (99) This reading taught us Leper’s w...
Read more