Leper is portrayed as the dreamer and eccentric loner at Devon, his idiosyncratic ways often being cause for ridicule. Unlike the other boys who accept, and sometimes even embrace the war, Leper grapples with it silently. Finally he shocks his classmates and becomes the first to enlist in the war, unable to stand the wait for what he views as the inevitable, stating "'. . . Everything has to evolve or else it perishes'" (117). Leper's absence makes the war even more surreal to the others; it had always seemed Leper was detached from the fighting of the real world. After all, it seemed unbelievable a war could "draw Leper voluntarily away from his snails and beaver dams. . ." (115). The change in Leper is not a gradual one – the game of Leper as a symbol of American triumph is shattered when he deserts the service in a panic. His quiet and quirky personality intensifies to the point of dementia. Leper's involvement in the military had forced him to emerge from his "cloud of vagueness", meeting the "horror, face to face, just as he had always feared" (196).
             Gene first presents his relationship with Finny as the ideal friendship, a fantasy that eventually gives way to Gene's fears and insecurities. Gene asserts that Finny resents him for his scholastic achievements, but it is quickly realized that it is Gene who resents Finny, and even more so for Finny's lack of rival spirit. The reader confirms this as Gene painfully admits, "He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew there never was and never could be any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he" (51). Gene is an unpredictable character at this point, his narration tinged with insincerities and doubts. Gene is so desperate in his envy that he shakes Finny off a limb in a high tree, causing Finny to be injured. By crippling Finny, Gene brings his idol to his own le...