Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock

Quick intersperses Leonard’s narration with four “Letters from the Future.” Leonard writes these letters to himself after Herr Silverman encourages him to do so. The characters Leonard imagines are family members: Commander E is his supportive father-in-law; A is his spunky wife; and S is his devoted daughter. In addition to describing an elaborate future world plagued by nuclear war and flooded cities, Leonard’s letters urge him to continue life. 

The letters express love and sympathy for Leonard, who walks through life feeling alone, tortured, and unloved. In Commander E’s voice, Leonard writes:

Your past—what you are currently experiencing—would be hard for anyone to endure. You’ve been so strong, making it this far. I admire your courage, and hope you can hold out a little longer. Twenty years seems like a long time to you, I bet, but it will pass quicker than you can ever imagine (33).

In writing the letters, Leonard tries to talk himself out of suicide. He fills the future with reasons to live: namely, the companionship and sense of worth he currently lacks. Herr Silverman explains that although he feels desperately alone in his current circumstances, Leonard can expect people like Commander E, A, and S to enter his life someday. If Leonard follows his own advice and hangs onto life, he will meet them and thus enjoy his future.

Leonard’s Nazi P-38 gun, which his grandfather took from a Nazi soldier he killed during World War II, appears in the novel’s opening. Leonard feels powerful as he carries it around school and plans to use it for murder and suicide. Referencing his 18th birthday, he says, “Maybe the P-38 will be a present for me when I unwrap it and shoot Asher Beal” (5). Preparing for the murder, Leonard also researches military tactics that link him with his grandfather’s history.

Leonard uses the Nazi weapon not because of Nazi sympathies but to subvert the gun’s associations with injustice. He wants to mimic his grandfather’s bravery and enact a just murder against an evil man. However, the gun’s trigger malfunctions, and Leonard eventually throws it into the river, suggesting that the P-38 is not a tool for true justice. 

Like the P-38, Leonard’s Bronze Star comes from his grandfather, who won it for bravery after serving in World War II. His third present, Leonard gives the medal to Herr Silverman as a token of appreciation on his birthday.

Later, Herr Silverman returns the medal to Leonard, having transformed and personalized it. Leonard narrates, “It's my grandfather’s Bronze Star, only it’s been covered with paper, painted, and then laminated. On the star is a bronze peace sign and on the ribbon are my initials written in fancy calligraphy swirls” (233-34). Leonard marvels at Herr Silverman’s thoughtfulness and how he has turned his own present into a birthday gift for his student. This token symbolizes Herr Silverman’s restorative influence on a dark day in Leonard’s life.

William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet features often throughout Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. Leonard repeatedly reads this classic work from Elizabethan England and has memorized large portions of its dense, poetic text. The play depicts Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, who seeks to avenge his murdered father and depose his traitorous uncle. Hamlet centers around themes of death, betrayal, and mental illness. Leonard’s deep interest in the play connects to his desire for revenge against Asher Beal, as well as his mental health issues. 

In Leonard’s imagined future, he, his wife, and father-in-law operate a lighthouse about the flooded city of Philadelphia. They faithfully send out the light for safety, although as Commander E notes, “we have not seen another human or single boat of any kind in more than a year” (29). Herr Silverman suggests that the lighthouse’s beam symbolizes the gifts Leonard possesses but no one recognizes. Just as no one comes near the beam, people avoid Leonard and can’t see his attributes such as intelligence, wit, and compassion. 

In the novel’s final chapter, Leonard, writing as his daughter S, encourages himself to “man the great light. Even when no one is looking” (273). Leonard realizes he must, as Herr Silverman advises, fight to cultivate his individual greatness despite life’s challenges.