A Seperate Peace Ch.10

"The careful politeness he had always had was gone" (142).

'"I escaped!" the word surging out in a voice and intensity that was not Leper's' (143).

"None of this could have been said by the Leper of the beaver dam" (143).

Phineas comes back with a new attitude towards life and now Leper has "escaped" from the brutal war, losing his ambitious personality. Leper has all of a sudden become so defensive. He even brings up the accident with Phineas as he tries to defend himself. Leper is a boy who has gone through quite a bit during his time in the war. He experienced a lot and is pretty much scarred with it. Leper is an entirely new person now. Unfortunately, he has nobody to talk to about this brutal experience. Nobody has gone through what he did and saw. It is not fair to Leper and definitely out of line when Gene flips out at him. Leper is ill. Gene still shows that selfish side of him as he rudely says to Leper how he doesn't care because it doesn't have anything to do with him. Gene's not changing. It's the people around him. Clearly, he's not getting the picture! Gene could have been a little more sensitive towards Leper. Just because Gene hasn't experienced such tragedy like Leper and Phineas, does not mean he can act like he's superior to everybody else. Gene's a jerk. Leper considered him as a close friend and Gene completely stabs him in the back, leaving Leper in the cold.

Has Gene's character changed at all? I'm beginning to think not.