ETON Explore the difference between what ‘escape’ means to Gene as opposed to what it means to Leper (see usage in context on the middle of page 143).

     In this chapter Gene, while walking to Leper's house, is trying to convince himself that by "escape" Leper meant escape from enemy spies, but what Leper meant was that he escaped from the army and escaped from the number 8 discharge. When Gene started talking to Leper he thought "I no longer wanted this to be true, I no longer wanted it to be connected with spies or desertion or anything out of the ordinary" (Knowles 143). Gene hoped that Leper would be consistent with what Brinker and Chet were talking about in the Butt Room, that Leper was some kind of war hero, but now he breaks when he sees the new Leper, and sees what the army did to him. Gene thinks "escaped" in this situation, means taking away everything that they were talking about in the Butt Room, what he was hoping to be the truth and is more of a derogatory term. To Leper, "escaped" means having the ability to get a job and live a, what he hopes and wishes to be, "normal" life and is more of a nice term that he can also use as hope. Leper's and Gene's opinions of this word are very different, which is why they were unable to have a civil conversation.