A Separate Peace: Movie Analysis

A Separate Peace by John Knowles depicts the story of teenage boys in New England at a boys’ only boarding school in the midst of World War II, where Gene Forrester struggles with internal and external conflicts involving his emotions and the upcoming war. The 2004 film adaptation of the novel had many significant changes which altered the effects of the understanding and enjoyment of the story. The first major change is that in the novel the story is being told by Gene in the first person narrative while in the movie there is no narrator, this leads to some significant changes in the plot events. The second change is involving the character Leper Lepellier and his actions and behavior.
The novel is being told by Gene Forrester in his first-person

In the novel, Leper escapes from the military and goes to his home. He sends Gene a coded letter telling him where to meet him “I am at the Christmas location meant that he was at home. He lived far up in Vermont” (Knowles 139). Once Gene arrives at his home Leper tells him he runs away because they are going to give him a Section Eight Discharge. Leper says “A section Eight discharge is for the nuts in the service, the psychos, the Funny Farm candidates. They give you a Section Eight discharge, like a dishonorable discharge only worse. You can’t get a job after that” (Knowles 144). From this, the reader is able to understand that Leper is a mentally ill because of his time in the military and since they are going to discharge him for it, he runs away back to his home. This is a completely irrational decision because this is probably the first place the military will come looking for him but makes sense because Leper is crazy. This is understandable in the novel because Leper is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and he is not making rational decisions. Yet in the film, Leper does the opposite and his actions are those of a rational person. In the film, we see awhile after Leper has enlisted, one day Gene sees him at school and chases after him into the woods where a tent made of trees is set up. Once Gene catches up to him he asks, “What is this” and Leper replies “where I live” Leper goes on to tell Gene that the military will not keep him anymore and he does not want to go back because he is starting to see things. The viewer is able to understand that Leper is going insane and that is why the military does not want him. This changes the understanding of the story because if \ does run away from the military, him going to the woods is a much more rational decision for a crazy person than running back to his home. This does not make much sense