On page 52 of A Separate Peace, Gene asks Finny if he would mind if Gene became the head of class. Finny sarcastically says that he would kill himself out of envy, but Gene sees through his sarcasm and knows that Finny was not kidding at all. It takes Gene a minute, but he starts to see an elaborate plan that Finny created to make him better than Gene. Gene being better than Finny at academics, but still good at sports, in Finny’s mind, made Gene a better person than he is. So to stop Gene from becoming his full potential as head of class, and better than he is, Finny started dragging Gene into activities to prevent him from studying. One example of Finny preventing Gene from studying was convincing Gene to go to the beach with him. Had Gene not gone he would have been able to study for his test, but instead he went to the beach and as a result failed his test.
Gene feels tricked and let down by Finny. He believed that they were best friends and that the reason Finny would share everything with him was just out of kindness. You can tell that he feels this way because he starts to study harder and begins to compete with Chet Douglass for better grades, so there is no possible way of Finny catching up to him academically. Gene’s assumption is not accurate because later in the chapter Finny says that it is all right if he doesn’t want to come to the Super Summer Suicide Society meeting, which Gene thought was one of Finny’s ways of keeping him from studying. Do you think that Gene and Finny will grow further apart or remain friends? Is Gene imagining Finny’s plan or is it real? How will Gene’s assumption about Finny change their friendship?
I believe that Gene's realization of Finny's intentions is correct and frankly all too real. As you can see throughout the novel so far, Finny has always seemed to excel at most everything. He seems to have a constant need to be the best at everything, and the respect and admiration Finny receives from the faculty encourage this need. On page 52, when Gene asks about Finny's opinion of Gene being the head of class, Finny replies "I'd kill myself with jealous envy." When you look back through the novel, that statement can easily be interpreted as something serious due to Finny's personality and his need to always be right. When you think about it, the idea that Finny would sabotage Gene doesn't really sound all that far fetched. I believe that Finny just wouldn't really be able to handle it if someone, especially Gene, was better than him at something. You can also see that after Gene expressed interest in being head of class, and started acting on that interest, Finny increased his amount of studying. Even though Gene is temporarily angry with Finny, I believe that he will not stay angry with him based off of his past actions, which involved him forgiving Finny after putting him in danger. Do you think Gene will keep forgiving Finny for his actions?
ReplyDeleteAnswering the question of will Gene and Finny grow further apart I think that they will actually become much closer, that is until one of them become superior to another. The way Gene thinks that Finny has some kind of plan in my opinion is complete paranoia, but now that Gene believes there is some plan he will work very hard in his academics and both him and Finny will excel. One at academics and one at sports. Or Finny could really be kidding about “Killing himself in jealous envy.” And Gene is just thinking too much and being paranoid. So all is well until one of the two is regarded as superior by society in general, so the question is: how will the not superior one react, will it tighten or hurt the relationship?
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ReplyDeleteI think that Gene and Finny's relationship will grow apart because Gene still thinks that one of them has to be better then the other, and doesn't really know if he can trust Finny. My prediction is that Gene will let guilt come between their relationship. When Gene jounced the tree limb and caused Finny to "shatter" his leg, he felt responsible for it. Finny thought that he accidentally fell out of the tree, but Gene was the only one who really knew if he jounced the limb on purpose or by mistake. I believe that they will remain friends, but each of them will have a different opinion of one another. Finny will think of Gene as his best friend and someone who he can trust, but Gene will think of Finny as a friend and not a Best-friend. Their relationship will never be as tight as it used to be.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion Gene is imagining Finny's plan and is becoming paranoid as Ahcene said. He has always wanted to be better then Finny and views their relationship as a competition.
I think that Gene's assumptions about Finny will cause tension between them. Whenever they are around each other it will feel awkward and Finny will discover what Gene has thought about him and their relationship the whole time. Finny never thought that he was competing against Gene, but Gene always thought he was competing against Finny. Eventually, I think Finny and Gene's relationship will fall apart because of Gene's thoughts and actions.
To add to my comment, How do you think the incident of Finny falling off the tree and breaking his leg impact the book? Will this cause their relationship to become more competitive or will their relationship grow stronger?
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