Eventually Gene try's to stop the conversation by heading off to the butt room with Brinker. From what I understand the butt room is a place where Gene is at ease and free to be himself, a symbol for a place where he feels no guilt or remorse. This wall of peace is ripped apart by the other boys in the room confronting him about the "crime". He makes up some something else telling and comforting himself that he didn't actually hurt Finny. Finally after he composes a fake alibi he tries to throw pushing Gene in to his scheme as something made up as well. But he can't, he simply can't because in his head he knows that he did move that branch and hurt Finny. In conclusion the whole butt scene was a symbol to prove Gene's unavoidable guilt.
Why does Gene continue to hide away from the truth? Will somebody catch on to him like Brinker almost did? Will Gene and Finny stop lying to themselves about what really happened?
I agree with Daniel where the butt scene showed that Gene cannot avoid the guilt from Finny's fall. I don't think that Gene and Finny will ever admit to each other what happened. They may however acknowledge what happened, but not speak about it to each other. Soon, all of Devon's students that joined for the winter session will know that Finny fell of a branch while Gene was on it. They all probably know that Finny would never do something clumsy like falling off a tree. Does Gene feel like a criminal being tracked down by detectives at Devon? Will he ever be able to avoid this feeling of hiding?
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ReplyDeleteGene tried to tell the truth to Finny before, but Finny couldn't handle it so Gene bottled up his guilt again and it kept growing. I think Gene will never be able to hide the truth because the guilt inside him will keep growing and growing until it becomes so unbearable that he has to tell, or else people will get suspicious and will question him and find out the truth anyway. Gene and Finny will both stop lying to themselves and realize the truth overtime and they will probably have some conflict in the beginning, but I think their friend will be stronger in the long run. The Butt Room is a good symbol for Gene's unavoidable guilt that will eventually catch up with him.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the truth about Gene pushing Finny of the tree will ever be made public, unless Gene or Finny say it themselves. The bottom line is that they were up in the tree by themselves, and even if someone else had seen what had actually happened, they would have no way to prove it. I think that it's much more likely that Gene will crack under the pressure of having Finny's injury constantly come up, and inadvertently reveal his guilt to the whole school. If he did, though, I'm positive that Finny would disagree, and that the students of Devon would believe him over Gene. Do you think that, if questioned directly, Gene would cave in to the pressure and admit his crime? And if Finny were to ask Gene to tell the whole school what he did, do you think he would?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sasha's analogy of the butt room for the most part. I think its important in the book because it shows how little people actually know about the incident. However I disagree with the point that Sasha made about Gene cracking, because after that passage, I think he won't. In my opinion, and this might just be how i enterpereted the passage from the way i read it, gene handled the situation really well. He covered the story so well that the others didn't know what to believe and what is a joke. I like how he said "he black mailed his parents, made love to his sister.. (p 90)" and the casually said he pushed Finny off, like it was just one more of his jokes. My question is, do you think that is enough to let him off the hook?
ReplyDeleteNate, I think Sasha was right about Gene cracking under the pressure because he doesn't seem able to keep something to himself for very long. I do agree with you though that by making fun of the situation and making a joke out of it he was able to get the situation under control. I also agree with Sasha about nobody finding out what truly happened unless Gene or Finny were to tell them themselves, because nobody was ever suspecting Gene's betrayal in the first place, and they would have no reason to. I think that if someone were to ask Gene if he pushed Finny, Gene would tell them the truth. Do you think that either Gene or Finny will eventually tell someone what really happened in the tree?
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