This fight is significant because it shows Gene defending Finny. "I didn't know why for an instant; it was almost as though I were maimed. Then the realization that there was someone who was flashed over me." That someone is Finny, and he is now maimed because of what Gene did to him. Gene feels bad about shattering Finny's leg, and when Quakenbush insults a "maimed" person, Gene has to defend Finny. This relates to Gene's building guilt for jouncing the limb, and Quakenbush is just making it worse by reminding him that he maimed Finny. Quakenbush is so disdainful towards Gene because he doesn't know who he is. He knows nothing of the summer session, and believes that Gene is trying to take his place as manager, and looks down on him. Do you think that Quakenbush will find out about the summer session and feel bad for Gene?
Monday, October 3, 2011
Explore the significance of the fight with Quackenbush. Why does it happen? What exactly sets Gene off? How is related to his narrative earlier in...
It is the beginning of the fall at Devon, and Finny is still at home. Instead of playing a sport, Gene decides to become the assistant crew manager. When he shows up late at the crew house, him and Cliff Quakenbush, the crew manager, already get off to a bad start. Quakenbush insults Gene and bosses him around throughout the day, having a "furious arrogance which sprang out at the mere hint of of opposition form someone he had at last found whom he could consider inferior to himself," Page 78. Finally Gene gets angry at Quakenbush's careless insults, and his complete ignorance of everything that had happened during the summer session, and snaps when he calls him maimed. He punches him, and they roll into the river.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Matt that many of Quakenbush's insults revolved around ignorance. He had no way of knowing the new, slightly crazy, and extremely sensitive mind that Gene has obtained over the summer session. Gene really seems to take this insult of being called "maimed" personally. He definitely should, as his best friend, who is "maimed", should be defended in a situation like this. At the end of the chapter Gene says that his purpose was to become a part of Phineas, and this can easily connect to this fight. I do think that Quakenbush will find out what happened, but similar to Gene about Quakenbush, he will feel bad for Gene on the inside but not be able to show it on the outside.
ReplyDeleteI agree that his insults involved his ignorance, but I think they were mainly more about the fact that many people don't like him and due to this he just has a bitter personality. "And to me there only came the dislike edge of Quackenbush's reputation." If someone has a bad reputation there is a reason for it, and his is probably due to his biter and angry personality andIi feel that is the reason that he insulted Gene. But when he called Gene maimed that was out of ignorance, and i agree that he should have defended Finny for that. Do you think Gene will continue to work with and/or have contact with Quackenbush, or will he not come up in the book again?
ReplyDeleteI think that Quackenbush kind of represents the anger and misunderstanding that led to Gene's jouncing of the limb. Gene did not like that Quackenbush called Gene maimed, because Gene now knows what being truly maimed is. Gene now has a new understanding of the word maimed, different then what he ever thought jouncing the limb could do to Finny. Gene gets quite angry with Quackenbush because Gene is trying to push away the anger that he felt toward Finny that led to Finny's shattered leg. I think that because of what I think Quackenbush represents, he will come back later in the novel, because Gene will keep confronting the anger and guilt about what happened to Finny.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Gene would have hit anyone like that. He has so much stress about school, and worries so much about Finny, that Gene wouldn't have normally hit Quackenbush. Quackenbush was pushing Gene's buttons a little, but out of love for his friend, he had to defend him. If Finny was at the school, than I don't think Gene would have reacted this way. I am curious to see how there rivalry continues in the book.
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