Leper and Gene think of 'escaping' in different ways. To Gene, 'escaping' is a bad thing, but to Leper it is a miracle or a good thing. Gene goes to Leper's house in Vermont, after he receives a telegram saying that Leper needs help. Once he arrives at the house, Gene and Leper talk about Leper leaving the army, which leads to Leper explaining how and why he escaped. Gene gets annoyed and angry at Leper because he is confused about what Leper is saying and why he had to come all the way to Vermont, when Leper's situation could have all been explained in a phone call."'What do you mean, you escaped?' I said sharply. 'You don't escape from the army'"(Knowles 143). To Gene this 'escaping' from the army is new and like a foreign language. He's confused because Leper wanted to enlist and it was his choice, but now he hates it and has escaped.
Gene and Leper have two different definitions of 'escaping' because they think about the army differently. At the beginning of the novel, Gene knows that the army is hard and requires a lot of work, but now he is invested in believing that there isn't war. Finny has this idea that "there isn't any war."(Knowles 115), and Gene partially believes it. He is trying to make himself believe that there isn't a war because he wants to be Finny, but he still knows that there is a war going on. Before Leper enlists, he doesn't think that the army will be that hard and he thinks that he will be able to ski. Instead, he starts to get visions of people and things, and struggles to keep up in training, which leads to him getting a Section Eight Discharge. Leper says, "A Section Eight Discharge is for the nuts in the service"(Knowles 144). When Leper starts talking about the army, Gene doesn't want to hear about it. Gene starts to yell at Leper, "Do you think I want to hear every glory detail! Shut up! I don't care!"(Knowles 151) It sounds like Gene is scared to hear about the army and Leper's thoughts. If Gene hears about the 'real army life' he will start to have trouble believing that there is no war. Gene thinks that if he starts believing in the war, he is betraying Finny. He is afraid of not becoming Finny. In the beginning, Gene has a more realistic view about the army than Leper, but now Leper has the more realistic view.
Knowles includes Gene's conversation with Leper in his book because it gives a new perspective about war and characterizes Leper more. Gene and Leper have different views about war and Gene starts to realize that Leper is actually crazy and he is an outlier at Devon. Leper's name shows how he is excluded from many friend groups and becomes an outlier. While Gene is in Vermont, he starts to realize how bad of an idea it would have been to enlist, and gets a new perspective about the war. He starts understanding that the war is real and it isn't just something all the boys talk about anymore.
I agree with Rei, that the reason that Gene and Leper have differing opinions on what it means to escape is due to their perceptions of the war. When Leper announces how he has left the army, Gene is increduolous. He has grown to believe that enlisting was a noble cause of bravery, and that it was not as bad as it was made out to be. Gene began to believe this when he let his imagination sugar coat the truth of the war and Leper's situation, such as when he pictured Leper as a spy on page 140. "There was some color, some hope, some life in this war after all. The first friend of mine who ever went into it got tangled almost immediately with spies." (Knowles 140). However, upon seeing Leper's troubled state and the scarring memories it has implanted into his friend's mind, it makes Gene realize how awful it really is. Leper's escape was really one from the imaginary world Gene had created of what he thought the war to be.
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