Leper Lepellier - a Separate Peace

In chapter seven Gene and Brinker Hadley discuss about enlisting into the army, they are seventeen and have to make this life decision quickly. Gene begins to really examine the idea of being in the army he says "To enlist. To slam the door impulsively on the past, to shed everything down to my last bit of clothing, to break the pattern of my life....The war would be deadly all right. But I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me." (92) Gene begins by talking about "slamming the door impulsively on his past" (92) you can tell Gene is very upset about the whole ordeal of Finny and shattering the bones in his legs, he would prefer to just forget about everything that happened with him. That would be the easiest for Gene, to go off to the army and forget all about his past mistakes, and not have to deal with his own emotions. Using the metaphor of slamming a door we can see that shutting this metaphorical door is like completely closing a chapter in his life and never looking back, and he says this without any hesitation. Then Gene begins talks about "…to my last bit of clothing" (92) this part of the quote parallels when Gene puts on Finny's clothes and he doesn't have a single care in the world because he was fully complete, however when he puts on an army uniform he can be nothing, a new self. He doesn't have to think back to the past and figure out all of his mistakes and regrets; especially hurting finny... "But I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me" (92). In this particular sentence Gene is talking about the war, but this has an underlying meaning; especially when he speaks about things that attract him. The war is appealing him because it is deadly, but he had attempted to hurt Finny, however did not intend to kill him. This can be mirroring the fact that even though he admires Finny for all that he does he too envy's him and all that he does. He