I picked this picture because it represents the tree Leper didn't want to jump off of. In order to be a member of the "Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session," you had to jump from the tree that was located high above the river. Leper didn't want to do this and refused to.
Analysis
Leper absolutely loves nature and the wilderness. As said in the book, A Separate Peace, "He dreamed his way through July and August amid sunshine and dust motes and windows through which the ivy had reached tentatively into the room"(Knowles 74). He is the one that finds the beaver dam and takes pictures of it. While attending Devon Leper comes across Brinker and Brinker calls him an abominable snownman and a "nat-u-ral-ist." The war is going on during the time he is at the school, however, Leper does not aknowledge the war at all, in fact, he almost hides from it! Unusually, Leper is the first to enlist in the war, out of the group of boys. "Now I see what racing skiing is all about. It's all right to miss seeing the trees and the countryside and all the other things when you've got to be in a hurry. And when you're in a war you've got to be in a hurry. Don't you? So I guess maybe racing skiers weren't ruining the sport after all. They were preparing it, if you see what I mean, for the future. Everything has to evolve or else it perishes. . . I'm almost glad this war came along. It's like a test, isn't it, and only the things and the people who've been evolving the right way survive"(Knowles 116-117). He escapes, however, and asks Gene to come visit him.
Theme-tie-in
In my opinion, Leper stays in his shell and his comfortzone. He suprises everyone when he enlists in the military, and makes Gene's perspective of the war, seem even more unreal. In a way, he escapes reality by wondering off by himself and observing the beaver dams and nature itself. If i were attending Devon, I would probably try to be friends with Leper. He seems so peaceful and imaginative.
