Natalie Madden Question 3: Discuss Leper’s return and its impact on Gene and Finny before Brinker’s trial. What does Leper represent now that he is back at Devon and what conversation does his return trigger between Finny and Gene? (see pages 163-164).

Finny’s thoughts about the war changes when he sees Leper again.  When Gene returns from visiting Leper, he tells his friends that Leper is now crazy as a result of going to war. Later when Finny and Gene are in their room Finny tells Gene that he now believes there is a war because of the change in Leper, “When I heard that about Leper, then I knew that the war was real, this war and all of the wars,” (Knowles 163). Finny liked to believe that wars didn’t exist. He thought that, “The fat old men who don’t want us crowding them out of their jobs. They’ve made it all up,” (Knowles 144). Finny then continues to explain that after Gene had told him what had happened to Leper and  that he is now crazy, he saw him and also confirmed that Leper is now insane. Finny saw him when he was walking outside the church to escape the traffic, “I saw Leper and he must have seen me. He didn’t say a damn word. He looked at me like I was a gorilla or something and then he ducked into Mr. Carhart’s office” (Knowles 163). Finny thinks that Leper isn’t acting the same way that he used too before he went away.  Now that he has returned, the huge change in Leper. confirms that this war and all wars have a real effect on the enlisted men. With  Leper’s return Finny’s thoughts of the war have changed because he sees first hand the effects of war on someone who used to be outgoing and who now is scared and cries.

Do you think Leper will ever be the same old Leper ever again?