The Classics discussion

For discussion of the near end.

It's interesting to see how the war affects the boys regardless of the fact that they aren't fighting in it. Even Leper who joins up but doesn't actually go.

I have a feeling Leper was hallucinating from lack of food and sleep. Poor kid.

I think that's possible. I thought of Leper as mostly stable, but unable to adjust to major changes in his routine. Once he was taken out of his established environment he couldn't ever get re-established. I almost think if he had waited to be drafted that would have been better. I thought his choosing and enlisting early might have created a set of expectations that (then once it wasn't anything like he expected) contributed to his inability to adjust. Of course, the boys in the book thought drafting would have been worse.

I agree that drafting would've been better for Leper, but I don't believe he was ever portrayed as stable. Even at the school Leper didn't exact deal with the schedule properly and he didn't really seem to want to do anything. I liked him earlier in the book, but there is no debating in my mind that he was always unstable.

True. But I felt that left to his own devices with no army/war issue he might never have experienced that break. He might still have, I don't know, but I never saw it as a foregone conclusion that he would have that kind of collapse.

Leper was sensitive to change and cruelty. Both are very prominant in the world; whether in peace or war. I do not believe there is a world in which Leper could happily exist. All there really was for him, best case scenario, would be for him to break down in a safe environment where he would not be as hurt as he was in the war training camp.