A Separate Peace.pdf - Southwest High School
A Separate Peace.pdf - Southwest High School A Separate Peace.pdf - Southwest High School
92never will.""You're so wrong I can't even—I can't even hear you, you're so wrong.""Well, I'm going to do it anyway.""No. You're not.""The hell I'm not. I don't have to have your approval, do I?""I'm his roommate, and I'm his best friend—""And you were there when it happened. I know. And I don't give a damn. And don't forget,"he looked at me sharply, "you've got a little personal stake in this. What I mean is it wouldn'tdo you any harm, you know, if everything about Finny's accident was cleared up andforgotten."I felt my face grimacing in the way Finny's did when he was really irritated. "What do youmean by that?""I don't know," he shrugged and chuckled in his best manner, "nobody knows." Then thecharm disappeared and he added, "unless you know," and his mouth closed in its straightexpressionless line, and that was all that was said.I had no idea what Brinker might say or do. Before he had always known and donewhatever occurred to him because he was certain that whatever occurred to him was right. Inthe world of the Golden Fleece Debating Society and the Underprivileged Local Childrensubcommittee of the Good Samaritan Confraternity, this had created no problems. But I wasafraid of that simple executive directness now.I walked back from Chapel and found Finny in our dormitory, blocking the staircase untilthe others who wanted to go up sang A Mighty Fortress Is Our God under his direction. No onewho was tone deaf ever loved music so much. I think his shortcoming increased hisappreciation; he loved it all indiscriminately—Beethoven, the latest love ditty, jazz, a hymn—itwas all profoundly musical to Phineas.". . . Our helper He a-mid the floods," wafted out across the Common in the tempo of afootball march, "Of mortal ills prevailing!""Everything was all right," said Finny at the end, "phrasing, rhythm, all that. But I'm notsure about your pitch. Half a tone off, I would estimate offhand."We went on to our room. I sat down at the translation of Caesar I was doing for him, sincehe had to pass Latin at last this year or fail to graduate. I thought I was doing a pretty good jobof it."Is anything exciting happening now?"
93"This part is pretty interesting," I said, "if I understand it right. About a surprise attack.""Read me that.""Well let's see. It begins, 'When Caesar noticed that the enemy was remaining for severaldays at the camp fortified by a swamp and by the nature of the terrain, he sent a letter toTrebonius instructing him'—'instructing him' isn't actually in the text but it's understood; youknow about that.""Sure. Go on."" 'Instructing him to come as quickly as possible by long forced marches to him'—this 'him'refers to Caesar of course."Finny looked at me with glazed interest and said, "Of course."" 'Instructing him to come as quickly as possible by long forced marches to him with threelegions; he himself—Caesar, that is—'sent cavalry to withstand any sudden attacks of theenemy. Now when the Gauls learned what was going on, they scattered a selected band of footsoldiers in ambushes; who, overtaking our horsemen after the leader Vertiscus had been killed,followed our disorderly men up to our camp.'""I have a feeling that's what Mr. Horn is going to call a 'muddy translation.' What's itmean?""Caesar isn't doing so well.""But he won it in the end.""Sure. If you mean the whole campaign—" I broke off. "He won it, if you really think therewas a Gallic War . . ." Caesar, from the first, had been the one historical figure Phineas refusedabsolutely to believe in. Lost two thousand years in the past, master of a dead language and adead empire, the bane and bore of schoolboys, Caesar he believed to be more of a tyrant atDevon than he had ever been in Rome. Phineas felt a personal and sincere grudge againstCaesar, and he was outraged most by his conviction that Caesar and Rome and Latin had neverbeen alive at all . . . "If you really think there ever was a Caesar," I said.Finny got up from the cot, picking up his cane as an afterthought. He looked oddly at me,his face set to burst out laughing I thought. "Naturally I don't believe books and I don't believeteachers," he came across a few paces, "but I do believe—it's important after all for me tobelieve you. Christ, I've got to believe you, at least. I know you better than anybody." I waitedwithout saying anything. "And you told me about Leper, that he's gone crazy. That's the word,we might as well admit it. Leper's gone crazy. When I heard that about Leper, then I knew thatthe war was real, this war and all the wars. If a war can drive somebody crazy, then it's real allright. Oh I guess I always knew, but I didn't have to admit it." He perched his foot, small castwith metal bar across the bottom to walk on, next to where I was sitting on the cot. "To tell youthe truth, I wasn't too completely sure about you, when you told me how Leper was. Of course
- Page 42 and 43: 42"How many?""Who knows? Get some.
- Page 44 and 45: 44The houses on either side were in
- Page 46 and 47: 46"No, I wouldn't.""And I spent my
- Page 48 and 49: 48"What?" I pulled quickly around i
- Page 50 and 51: 50They laughed at him a little, and
- Page 52 and 53: 52"I'm not sure, Leper, but I think
- Page 54 and 55: 54After they had gone we laborers l
- Page 56 and 57: 56To enlist. To slam the door impul
- Page 58 and 59: 588"I can see I never should have l
- Page 60 and 61: 60"So," Brinker curled his lip at m
- Page 62 and 63: 62So the war swept over like a wave
- Page 64 and 65: 64We went into the gym, along a mar
- Page 66 and 67: 66you at the Funny Farm.""In a way,
- Page 68 and 69: 68large rambling, doubtfully Coloni
- Page 70 and 71: 709This was my first but not my las
- Page 72 and 73: 72Giraud but Lepellier; we knew, be
- Page 74 and 75: 74"Who wants a Winter Carnival?" he
- Page 76 and 77: 76Still the sleek brown head bent m
- Page 78 and 79: 78ELWIN LEPER LEPELLIER.
- Page 80 and 81: 80escapes from is danger, death, th
- Page 82 and 83: 82"That's what you say. But that's
- Page 84 and 85: 84a good boy underneath," she must
- Page 86 and 87: 86the Mess Hall, I had to eat every
- Page 88 and 89: 88"How's Leper?" he asked in an off
- Page 90 and 91: 90I didn't say anything."He must be
- Page 94 and 95: 94I believed you," he added hurried
- Page 96 and 97: 96acoustics in the school. I couldn
- Page 98 and 99: 98the tree did it by itself. It's a
- Page 100 and 101: 100"Here! Go get him," said Brinker
- Page 102 and 103: 102"I can't think of the name of th
- Page 104 and 105: 104Dr. Stanpole stopped near the do
- Page 106 and 107: 106hurt my stomach and I could feel
- Page 108 and 109: 108and "psycho" and "sulfa," strang
- Page 110 and 111: 110His face had been struggling to
- Page 112 and 113: 11213The quadrangle surrounding the
- Page 114 and 115: 114Brinker slid his fingers into th
- Page 116 and 117: 116At the gym a platoon was undress
93"This part is pretty interesting," I said, "if I understand it right. About a surprise attack.""Read me that.""Well let's see. It begins, 'When Caesar noticed that the enemy was remaining for severaldays at the camp fortified by a swamp and by the nature of the terrain, he sent a letter toTrebonius instructing him'—'instructing him' isn't actually in the text but it's understood; youknow about that.""Sure. Go on."" 'Instructing him to come as quickly as possible by long forced marches to him'—this 'him'refers to Caesar of course."Finny looked at me with glazed interest and said, "Of course."" 'Instructing him to come as quickly as possible by long forced marches to him with threelegions; he himself—Caesar, that is—'sent cavalry to withstand any sudden attacks of theenemy. Now when the Gauls learned what was going on, they scattered a selected band of footsoldiers in ambushes; who, overtaking our horsemen after the leader Vertiscus had been killed,followed our disorderly men up to our camp.'""I have a feeling that's what Mr. Horn is going to call a 'muddy translation.' What's itmean?""Caesar isn't doing so well.""But he won it in the end.""Sure. If you mean the whole campaign—" I broke off. "He won it, if you really think therewas a Gallic War . . ." Caesar, from the first, had been the one historical figure Phineas refusedabsolutely to believe in. Lost two thousand years in the past, master of a dead language and adead empire, the bane and bore of schoolboys, Caesar he believed to be more of a tyrant atDevon than he had ever been in Rome. Phineas felt a personal and sincere grudge againstCaesar, and he was outraged most by his conviction that Caesar and Rome and Latin had neverbeen alive at all . . . "If you really think there ever was a Caesar," I said.Finny got up from the cot, picking up his cane as an afterthought. He looked oddly at me,his face set to burst out laughing I thought. "Naturally I don't believe books and I don't believeteachers," he came across a few paces, "but I do believe—it's important after all for me tobelieve you. Christ, I've got to believe you, at least. I know you better than anybody." I waitedwithout saying anything. "And you told me about Leper, that he's gone crazy. That's the word,we might as well admit it. Leper's gone crazy. When I heard that about Leper, then I knew thatthe war was real, this war and all the wars. If a war can drive somebody crazy, then it's real allright. Oh I guess I always knew, but I didn't have to admit it." He perched his foot, small castwith metal bar across the bottom to walk on, next to where I was sitting on the cot. "To tell youthe truth, I wasn't too completely sure about you, when you told me how Leper was. Of course
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