A Separate Peace

What confession did Finny make to Gene concerning his former repudiation of war??

cht. 12-13

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Finny confessed that he had used every avenue open to him in order to somehow becime involved in and help with the war effort. His initial denial of the war was untrue, he just didn't want to be told he was useless.... he wanted to do something.

He bent over the suitcase again. “I’ve been writing to the Army and the Navy and the Marines and the Canadians and everybody else all winter. Did you know that? No, you didn’t know that. I used the Post Office in town for my return address. They all gave me the same answer after they saw the medical report on me. The answer was no soap. We can’t use you. I also wrote the Coast Guard, the Merchant Marine, I wrote to General de Gaulle personally, I also wrote Chiang Kaishek, and I was about ready to write somebody in Russia.”

I made an attempt at a grin. “You wouldn’t like it in Russia.”

“I’ll hate it everywhere if I’m not in this war! Why do you think I kept saying there wasn’t any war all winter? I was going to keep on saying it until two seconds after I got a letter from Ottawa or Chungking or some place saying, ‘Yes, you can enlist with us.’” A look of pleased achievement flickered over his face momentarily, as though he had really gotten such a letter. “Then there would have been a war.”

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A Separate Peace