For tonights reading, Gene and Leper meet in snowy Vermont, the location of the distress telegram. Leper attempts to explain why he abandoned the ski troop and is received with indignation. The past weeks at the Devon School have been filled with talk of Leper's enlistment. Leper is the school's connection to the war, to the action. As seen in an earlier reading, Gene is still intrigued by the idea of joining the war effort. On the train, after shoveling off the tracks, Leper announces that he will join. This sparks a rush of excitement in Gene, and opens a window for him to join. When Leper announces his departure from the army, this slams the window right in Gene's face. His hopes of leaving Devon are diminished and he is left with no option but to stay or go and fight alone. In all, this conversation frustrates and angers Gene to the point of violence. For Leper on the other hand his decision to quit is connected to the entire future of his life. If Leper is considered insane and forced to leave, he will be in no position to find a good job or even have a partially successful way forward. Leper has made his choice as a form of survival as shown on page 144. "You can't get a job after that... You're screwed for life, that's what a Section Eight discharge means."
When Gene read the telegram, he thought that Leper had been taken prisoner by the enemy and somehow managed to "escape". "The most logical thing a soldier escapes from is danger, death, and the enemy" (Knowles 140). Gene suspects that Leper managed to escape from the enemy. Leper on the other hand, did not escape from the enemy, but from the war itself. He found the war dangerous and the war was his real enemy, even though all the people he was around were on his side.
ReplyDeleteLeper's idea of escaping is getting a second chance: "You can't get a job after that... You're screwed for life, that's what a Section Eight discharge means." (Knowles 144). Leper knows that staying in the army risks ruining the rest of his life. Gene tells himself that no one escapes from the army, this is to convince himself that the war can't be so bad. Lepers state of mind has convinced Gene that this war is real, but Gene still refuses to accept that. Escaping from the war may not seem like the 'manly' thing to do, but it is Lepers only chance to move on in life.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Magnus that if Leper did not escape, his life would have been ruined. To Leper escaping the army was survival. This is seen in the quote “They give you a Section Eight Discharge, like a dishonorable discharge only worse” (Knowles 144). However, Gene sees escaping as something done against an enemy. He can not comprehend why Leper would run away when there was no danger. Do you think Gene could understand that the army was the enemy?
Leper's idea of escape was escaping the second eight discharge because he would have no chance at life if he were to receive one. On page 40 Gene's says that Leper must have escaped from spies. It never occurred to Gene that Leper would have come out of the war. Gene says that Leper must have escaped from spies in order to uphold the lie to himself of this utopian war. He does not want to admit the horridities of it nor give into the fear of it. Again he is in denial which reminds me of Finny who refuses to admit that there is a war. Gene's personality is more and more intertwined with FInny's as the plot commences.
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