The first place Gene visits is the white marble staircase in the First Academic Building. Gene notices that the moons carved into the stairs are not deep; he did not realize this as a teenager. He also notices that the stairs must be made of unusually hard marble. Gene is surprised he did not think about this before. The other place Gene visits, and is also associated with the fear of his adolescence, is the tree he jumped from into the river. He recognizes the scars on the trunk and the branch which juts over the river. He realizes that the tree is not isolated. He previously had thought that it was the only tree by the river. He also comments on how the tree is not as large as he remembers. Gene compares it to a giant of childhood and as an adult the giant is now small. He believes this is partly due to his growth. Knowles did this to show how Gene became more observant. He also did this to show how these places greatly affected Gene as an adolescent and adult. Why are these places so significant to Gene? Why did he return there alone as an adult? Why did Gene live his adolescence in such fear?
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Chapter 1: What Does Gene Realize About the First Academy Building and the Tree When he Visits Them Now? How Has His View Changed?
Gene is back at the Devon School fifteen years after graduating. He notices changes in the school, it is "more perpendicular and strait-laced (Page 1)." The school looks "as though a coat of varnish has been put over everything...(Page 1)." The school looks better because the war has ended and people now have many resources, not everything is sent off to use in the war. Gene realizes that he lived his whole live at Devon in fear, and did not even know it at the time. Gene decides to visit two places, both remind him of that fear.
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Good Job Michael that post was very clear and easy to read. I'm going to answer your first question.
ReplyDeleteThe stairs represent the academic side of Gene's time at Devon. They symbolize learning for him and academics were a huge part of his life as a student at the school. The tree is more important to Gene then the stairs because the tree represents his best friend Finny. Finny challenged Gene to jump from the tree in to the river. But the tree represents more then just that experience. The tree represents all the time Gene spent with Finny, who was a star athlete and a dare devil.
Nice job Micheal. I am going to answer your second question.
ReplyDeleteI believe Gene returned to Devon School to see the place that shaped his life. Not only did Devon School change his life academically, but it also gave him challenging decisions to make because of his friend Finny. Gene first went to the marble foyer in the First Academy Building reflecting on the stairs he used to walk from class to class. The next place he visited was the tree. Gene said,"At any other time I would have felt like a fool slogging through mud and rain, only to look at a tree." From this sentence it shows that this tree he longed to see was very important to him because he had made a decision there to jump and match his dare-devil friend Finny.
These two places are important to Gene because when you are a kid school is a lot of your life and especially if it is a boarding school. The two places mentioned were the building, which is academic and the tree, which is with friends. He realizes he lived both places in fear. The academics were hard and his friend Finny pushed him into things. Now as he looks back at both the elements of the school they don’t seam scary and not as big literally.
ReplyDeleteVery Good Job Micheal. It was a very detailed and clear response to the question. I like how you added multiples quotes into this response to add the picture of what the school was like. I think there are many different reasons that Gene could of lived his early life in such fear. One thing that I think he was afraid of was his friend Finny for many different reasons. One reason was because Gene did not want to lose his good friend. He wanted to try and fit in with Finny. I think Gene lived an everyday struggle to try to keep Finny happy when they were at school together. I think Gene thought he had to do everything Finny did just to fit into the school. I think Gene was also a not confident when he was a younger boy. I think he felt insecure about himself and that is why now he thinks that the tree has became smaller. It was large back then because he did not know who he was or what he wanted to be. This was a very well written paragraph.
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