believe that they would do anything to harm him.When Finny and Gene went to the beach in the summer, Finny told Gene that Gene was his "best pal (p.48)." Finny exposed himself to show Gene that he trusted him entirely. When Gene told Finny that he had purposely pushed him off the tree limb, Finny told Gene that he "makes [him] sick (p. 70)." Finny showed Gene that he hated the thought of the person he trusted the most being untrustworthy. Throughout the second half of the book, Finny endured the external pressures that Gene was out to get him. At the trial, Brinker brought the climax of these external pressures and caused Finny to push back. Finny told the court that he "just didn't care (p. 177)."
Finny ran away from the truth by simply standing up and walking away. In Finny's mind, he was on the edge of a cliff. During the novel, Finny found ways of overcoming the wind and the weight of his own body (Brinker and Finny's internal conflicts) by climbing close to the ultimate summit of the cliff where he was on top of the world (best friends with Gene). In the trial, Finny finally pushed away the wind permanently and pulled himself to the top of the cliff.
How should Gene respond to Finny's tremendous internal efforts? Have you ever felt pulled down from something and the urge to overcome it? How did your peers respond to your external efforts? Also, how does this relate to Atticus Finch's efforts to overcome racism in the deep south?
Good job Eli! I think that Gene needs to give Finny some time to think on his own and relax. Finny has gone through so much and Gene has been there for him, but Gene needs to give Finny some time to decide things on his own for once. If he doesn't things could just get even worse. I think everyone has had an issue that they want to overcome, but sometime it can be hard to deal with problems and overcome them. A lot of times this happens with friend troubles where you really don't want to have to solve an issue and you want to pretend everything is okay. I believe that is what Finny has been doing. It's hard not only on yourself, but also your peers when you do this because you are really just slowing down the healing process. I do think this relates to Atticus, but not that much. The difference in Atticus's case is that Atticus was trying to fight while others were trying to hold him back. In the case of A Separate Peace I believe that Finny was the one trying to push the problem aside while many of his friends were trying to help him through it.
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