Chapter 12: Explain what Gene means when he says, "Phineas, you wouldn't be any good in the war, even if nothing had happened to your leg."

Throughout the book, all Finny ever wanted was fun. He wasn't all for teams, but wanted every individual person to have fun and enjoy. In chapter 3, Gene told us that one of Finny's main beliefs was that "everyone always won at sports (p.35)". In Finny's opinion, the fun was found in playing, not winning and losing. A war is based off of winning or losing. Gene just learned that Finny wanted to be in the war, and he almost seems at a loss for words here. Gene knew that even in a simple snowball fight, Finny was not the type of person who could keep a side. Gene attempts to explain this to him by saying: "you'd make a mess, a terrible mess, Finny, out of the war(p.191)". This was because Finny would not know who to fight for, and according to Gene, fight on several sides.

I find Gene’s statement very true. Finny doesn’t dislike anybody. How could you even imagine Finny picking up a gun and shooting people. There isn’t a person in this book that Finny hasn’t liked. Finny simply is too pure to kill. I also doubt that a person like Finny could find reason for the war. He is full of forgiveness and understanding. He was even able to understand why Gene could push him off a tree. Most of the people in this world couldn’t forgive someone after they had ruined their life. Do you think Finny has always been interested in the war or did it start after his accident? At this point in the chapter do you think Gene was trying to be nice to Finny after seeing his anger? Do you think that after learning this from Finny, Gene’s war views have changed?