In the book "A Separate Peace" there are many characters which are talked about and play a role in the story. The main characters Gene and Finny, short for Phineas, are what drive the whole story and are the center of the many themes and meanings derived from this book. Elwin Lepellier also known as Leper-Lepellier is not as visible as Gene and Finny, but plays a role that is essential to the story.
             Leper was one of those people who keep to themselves all the time and aren't looking to be recognized. He didn't really talk to anyone although he spoke to Gene. Leper was always off looking for beaver dams or snails to photograph or off skiing and admiring nature. He only shows up a couple of times during the story, but seems to have importance when he does show up. In the January of the winter session Leper surprises everyone by enlisting in the United States ski troops. Leper was only a few weeks away from being eighteen. In the Butt Room, Brinker brought in newspapers with headlines about the war and made jokes about Leper's success in the army. "Leper sprang up all over the world at the core of every allied success" (118). In the words of Gene "In the
             silences between jokes about Leper's glories we wondered whether we ourselves would measure up to the humblest minimum of the army". Later on, Finny stopped going to the Butt Room since he thought that " If someone gave Leper a loaded gun and put it at Hitler's Temple, he'd miss" (119). Finny also drew Gene away from Brinker and his crowd and they focused on training for the Olympics, in their own world. When Finny tells Gene to come with him to Leper 's tree jump initiation, Gene thinks that Finny is trying to ruin his studies because he thinks that Leper would never jump. The role Leper plays there turns Gene's attention away from his school work and toward competition
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