Leper Finny's A Separate Peace

Upon returning to his school fifteen years after graduating, Gene Forrester, recalled his days at the Devon School in a surreal sense. In his own words, "In the deep, tacit way in which feeling becomes stronger than thought, I had always felt that the Devon School came into existence the day I entered it, was vibrantly real while I was a student there, and then blinked out like a candle the day I left." Helping embellish this reality were his friends, including Leper Lepellier, who appeared in only five scenes in A Separate Peace. Elwin "Leper" Lepellier's role as a minor character was vital to the story, although not nearly as visible as Gene's or Finny's. His appearances stole the attention of the reader, altered each character's own perceptions
Through Leper's enlisting, the boys find a way to bring the war to Devon. Attempts on Hitler's life were Leper's doings, the Tunisian campaign became "Leper's Liberation." In Gene's words: "In the silences between jokes about Leper's glories we wondered whether we ourselves would measure up to the humblest minimum of the army." While the boys are pondering how army life will be for them, Finny decides to hold a Winter Carnival; sports, ski jumps, slalom races and holly wreaths are all that matter, not Leper or the war for that brief time. All are intoxicated with life itself. Gene thought, "It wasn't the cider that made me surpass myself, it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, and separate peace." During this perfect, snowy afternoon of snow crystals and Olympics, they found their own peace from the war. It was as far from it as they ever could have gotten; a reach almost to the heavens, free of the troubles and stress they were used to, a utopia of friendship. Nothing could poison their peace, nothing until Leper's