Compare And Contrast A Separate Peace And Gene Forrester

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War has No Preference

On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland in order to acquire more living quarters or Lebensraum for the German people. Circa 1942, the same war that began four short years earlier has started to creep into the minds of the students at the Devon School in New Hampshire. Gene Forrester, an intellectual student, conveys a very important lesson on the catastrophic effects of indifference, while his friend Leper Lepellier displays the destruction and madness resulting from other’s indifference. Both Gene and Leper are living representations of the causes and effects of the morbid ideas of warfare.

Gene Forrester’s internal war is fought over his constant fear of the war and Finny. While reminiscing at Devon, Gene reveals that he “could see with great clarity …show more content…

When observing Leper’s behavior, Gene saw that Leper was “psycho” and “it was the army which had done it to him” (144). Leper is so afraid of what he is going to experience in the Army that he goes crazy. Leper simply does not have the mental toughness to endure the responsibilities brought on by the Military. Due to Leper’s inability to serve, he is bound to receive a “Section Eight discharge” which is a “dishonorable discharge only worse” (144). As leper grapples with the war waged inside of him, he struggles to see right from wrong. In order to escape possible discharge and a life of dishonor, Leper manages to run away from the Army before it can get to him. Back at Devon, there is rumors and jokes being spread about how Leper became “nervous in the service”(148). When Leper returns to Devon, everything is different which does not help him adjust back to his usual routine. While his sense of reason is perverted by the effects of his mental state, Leper can still see the truth behind Finny’s accident. By the end of the novel, Leper is still struggling with his mental state of

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