Discharge In Elwin Lepellier's A Separate Peace

“A section eight discharge is for the nuts in the service, the psychos, the Funny Farm candidates,” Elwin Lepellier explains (A Separate Peace 76). A psycho is an individual suffering from psychosis, which is defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as, “A serious mental illness characterized by defective or lost contact with reality often with hallucinations or delusions.” By virtue of the fact that the aforementioned description relays the idea that perception of reality is either defective or not present, Leper can be considered one of two alternatives. Either all of Leper’s awareness has been corrupted by his experience in the armed forces, or only his thoughts connected to his fears misalign with what is known to be real. The latter is

This is evident in the fact that Lepellier’s reflection upon certain subjects clearly exemplifies what the reader of A Separate Peace has deduced by means of analyzing the story through Gene’s

Recall that Leper said that he was going to receive a section eight discharge if he did not escape. As with any physical injury, people with an illness of the brain, such as psychosis, have varying severities. Just as Phineas shattered his leg once and cleanly broke it another time, “They may have a one-off episode, or it may be part of an ongoing illness such as schizophrenia” ABC Health and Wellbeing reports. Therefore, according to medical experts, it is possible that Leper is suffering periodically from his illness. Likewise, the causes of the problem make the illness all the more relatable to Leper’s character. ABC regards, “A stressful event,” to be a cause of the development of psychosis. It appears as though Leper experienced stress in the form of adaptation to his new life, which resulted in hallucinations. “Psycho. I guess I am. I must be. Am I, though, or is the army? Because they turned everything inside out. I couldn’t sleep in bed, I had to sleep everywhere else. I couldn’t eat in the Mess Hall, I had to eat everywhere else,” Leper reflects (A Separate Peace 80). Similarly, obsessive compulsive disorder affects various people to different extents. In some, the illness is identifiable and readily labeled. For instance, if one has ever viewed As