Upon returning to his school fifteen years after graduating, Gene Forrester, recalled his days at the Devon School in a surreal sense. In his own words, "In the deep, tacit way in which feeling becomes stronger than thought, I had always felt that the Devon School came into existence the day I entered it, was vibrantly real while I was a student there, and then blinked out like a candle the day I left." Helping embellish this reality were his friends, including Leper Lepellier, who appeared in only five scenes in A Separate Peace. Elwin "Leper" Lepellier's role as a...
and so give up the struggle absolutely." From his shy composure that enveloped him in vagueness to his inability to cope with the war, Leper's character shaped and progressed the novel. His mere presence extracted actions and thoughts from the main character that otherwise would have remained latent. He brought the war close to home for all the characters and altered their perceptions on it, and he diverted the reader's attention to his character. Gene felt as though Devon "blinked out" like a candle when he left; Leper's minor character helped fuel the fire of reality when he attended.