A Separate Peace: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

The “Christmas location” is Leper’s home in Vermont, to which Gene takes a train that very night. In retrospect, he sees this late-night train trip as the first of many that he ultimately ended up taking across the country that year, shuttling to and from various military bases once he finally enlisted. This kind of travel, he notes, comprised the entirety of his military service during World War II. This is because America’s enemies were already retreating by the time he finally entered the war. The young men just a year older than him were the last ones, he now recognizes, to see true action.

Gene hopes that Leper’s use of the word “escape” doesn’t meant that he deserted the military. Hurtling toward Vermont, he convinces himself that Leper has perhaps escaped not from the military, but from foreign spies who have made their way into the United States. When he arrives, though, he quickly learns that Leper did indeed desert in order to avoid facing a Section Eight discharge, which the military gives to people who have become mentally unstable. Sitting in Leper’s dining room, he listens to his friend speak in an unhinged manner, having trouble reconciling this version of Leper with the boy he knew before. Testy and fragile, Leper tells him that he fled because he didn’t want an official Section Eight discharge, which would make it hard for him to get a job after the war. 

As Leper tells Gene what happened, he senses that Gene thinks he’s a “psycho.” This word deeply troubles Gene, making him uncomfortable because of its serious, clinical sound. Suddenly, he can’t bear to sit in Leper’s dining room and listen to him speak. Moreover, he begins to worry about himself—after all, the military is what made Leper a “psycho,” and Gene must face the imminent possibility of getting drafted. With this in mind, he tells Leper to stop talking to him about his experience, but Leper only suggests that there’s nothing Gene can do to avoid the military. This enrages Gene, but Leper only laughs, insulting him by saying that there has always been something ugly lurking at his core. This, Leper says, is why Gene caused Finny’s fall.

Outraged, Gene jumps up, but Leper only laughs hysterically. He reminds Gene that he ruined Finny’s life, and Gene can’t stop himself from kicking Leper’s chair, sending him falling to the ground. Quickly, Leper’s mother enters and admonishes Gene for acting spitefully toward her sick child. Gene apologizes profusely and turns to leave, but Leper insists that he stay for lunch. After eating, the two boys go for a walk, and Gene tells Leper that Brinker has changed a great deal, becoming much less cruel. Leper responds that Brinker will always be a “bastard,” even if he turns into Snow White. Having said this, he bursts into tears, sobbing because the image of Snow White’s head on the body of a man troubles him. He then explains that these kinds of hallucinations are what caused him to face a Section Eight discharge in the first place.

Gene begs Leper to stop talking, but Leper either won’t or can’t. Unable to bear it any longer, Gene tells Leper to be quiet, insisting that this story has nothing to do with him and that he doesn’t care. Saying this, he runs away, leaving Leper as he blurts his story out in the snow-covered fields. As he rushes back to the train, Gene thinks about how he never wants to hear such a story ever again.