Assignment #12

What does Gene mean when he says “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war end before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (204). Who/what is his enemy? Why does he contradict himself there? What was his war?

As the final chapter comes to an end, Gene tells us about how his last year at Devon has affected his entire life- so much that, fifteen years later, he can retell all this pretty accurately. I think that he contradicted himself twice in that quote- for one, if you don't feel strongly about the enemy, they are not exactly your enemy at all. It might be his community's enemy, but since he "never developed an intense level of hatred" towards them, they are not his enemy. He contradicts himself more strongly, however, when he at first states that he never killed anybody, and then says just a sentence after that that he killed his enemy.

I don't believe that the real enemy of Gene was very apparent at all- at first I thought that it was his guilt, but he never killed it. His guilt would always be there- the belief that he had killed his best friend. And then, I thought: perhaps his enemy was the jealousy and envy he felt towards Finny. Even when Finny fell off the tree and broke his leg twice, Gene never truly let go of the resentment. At the end, however, when Finny died, Gene let go of the jealousy (partly, obviously, because there was nothing to be jealous of anymore), because the impact of the death made him realize that he didn't really have anything to be envious of.

Even if Gene harbored some sort of bitterness towards Finny, the 'golden boy' was always a part of Gene. Whenever something happened with Finny, Gene was really affected by it as well. When he mentioned Finny's funeral on page 194 (this was not in the Assignment 12 reading, but rather the page right before it), Gene said that: "I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family's... I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case." It's clear from this bit of evidence how much Finny's death influenced Gene - he even felt that Finny's death was his own.

Why does this final chapter really wrap up the book? Who- or what- do you think was Gene's true enemy, if he even had one?

Chapter 12: Explain the significance of the last paragraph: "I did not cry….you do not cry in that case."(pg. 194)

Well, as everybody knows Finny dies from operation, which makes Gene depressed and wishes he was dead. But before the operation was in action Gene and Finny had reunited their friendship by Gene telling Finny that he caused him to fall by accident which Finny forgave him for. Gene was excited that he finally told Finny that he caused him to fall off the tree and that Finny does not hate him anymore. After they made up with each other, Dr. Stanpole told him to come back around five o'clock which was when the operation was going to finish. Gene goes to classes and can't wait to see Finny again with a fixed leg. He even skips the meeting of the Commencement Arrangements Committee to see his friend Finny again. When he comes to visit Finny, Dr. Stanpole talks to Gene one on one, which gives Gene a bad feeling and the bad feeling was the horrifying message of the death of Gene's best friend Finny.

Since he heard that message he was depressed and felt that he caused all this to happen. Gene felt like he was the murderer of Gene because he felt like he caused him to die all the tension and confusion. The tension started with Gene pushing Finny off the tree, after trying to hide the truth, then Finny realizing that Gene caused his fall which made him get furious and burst out the assembly room, and fall down the stairs. When Gene says," I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case", I believe he says this because he wished he was the one who fell off the tree and died from the operation. All this guilt gets to his head and makes him wish he was dead. Wishing he was dead at the funeral of Finny he does not cry because if it is your funeral you obviously don’t cry because you are dead. Gene changes after Finny's death because he does not want to be noticed anymore and does not feel like he deserves a life.

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?

Chapter 10: Why does Finny act the way he does? What is really going on inside his head? How is this a reoccurring theme throughout the novel?

During this chapter, Finny acted in a reflection of how he has externally acted throughout the book. Throughout the novel, Gene could easily predict how Finny would act next but he had trouble understanding Finny's internal thought-process. At the end of the trial, Finny displayed the entirety of his internal conflicts. Finny acted that he really trusted his friends and didn't believe that they would do anything to harm him.

When Finny and Gene went to the beach in the summer, Finny told Gene that Gene was his "best pal (p.48)." Finny exposed himself to show Gene that he trusted him entirely. When Gene told Finny that he had purposely pushed him off the tree limb, Finny told Gene that he "makes [him] sick (p. 70)." Finny showed Gene that he hated the thought of the person he trusted the most being untrustworthy. Throughout the second half of the book, Finny endured the external pressures that Gene was out to get him. At the trial, Brinker brought the climax of these external pressures and caused Finny to push back. Finny told the court that he "just didn't care (p. 177)."

Finny ran away from the truth by simply standing up and walking away. In Finny's mind, he was on the edge of a cliff. During the novel, Finny found ways of overcoming the wind and the weight of his own body (Brinker and Finny's internal conflicts) by climbing close to the ultimate summit of the cliff where he was on top of the world (best friends with Gene). In the trial, Finny finally pushed away the wind permanently and pulled himself to the top of the cliff.

How should Gene respond to Finny's tremendous internal efforts? Have you ever felt pulled down from something and the urge to overcome it? How did your peers respond to your external efforts? Also, how does this relate to Atticus Finch's efforts to overcome racism in the deep south?

Explore the dynamics and undertones of Finny and Gene’s first conversations upon his return. Does it feel “realistic” to you? Why or why not?

Finny is back after the absence due to his 'shattered' leg, and suddenly everything changes- as written on page 102, "Everything that had happened throughout the day faded like that first false snowfall of the winter. Phineas was back." The minute after they share very brief greetings, the first thing that Finny tells Gene is how he should never have left him there to advertise how badly dressed he is.

I find that the first conversation between Finny and Gene rather ironic and unrealistic; instead of Gene asking Finny whether he is feeling all right or Finny asking Gene how he was doing, the first thing they discussed was how dreadful Gene's choice of clothing was. It's as if the two of them both are avoiding the topic of asking of each other's welfare. Finny's got a shattered leg and it's obviously not fine. Not only that, they both know that Gene purposely jounced the branch, which made Finny fall off the tree in the first place. It seems that neither of them want to face that guilt and unavoidable fact yet. They both know, however, that they must do that in the end, but they want to hold it off as soon as possible.

Soon after Phineas' return, Gene becomes a follower of Finny again, no matter how much pain, both physically and emotionally, Finny must be feeling with all of this. I think this shows how much influence Finny still has over Gene. Or, rather, how used to obeying Finny's words Gene is. He might realize later on that his popular best friend does not have as much power over him as he used to, but that Gene is so accustomed to listening to Finny that he just goes along with it.

Brinker intercepts the two friends' talk with the already-stated accusation that Gene got rid of Finny on purpose, which was partly true but put onto a very exaggerated scale. Instead of outright saying it, Brinker says as quoted from page 106, "'So,' Brinker curled his lip at me, 'your little plot didn't work so well after all.'" Gene, of course, goes into a right state of panic and passes it off as Brinker persuading him to enlist, which perhaps surprisingly, Finny reacts negatively to.

Eventually Gene realizes that Finny doesn't want him to enlist, and quickly reassures him that he wasn't even considering it (indirectly), which was most definitely not the truth. In doing so, he insults Brinker, effectively convincing Finny and humiliating Brinker at the same time. Later on, during one of their idle chats, Gene finds out that Finny doesn't believe that the war is really going on at all, and is really just a false idea that the high-class "fat old men" are putting into their minds while stuffing themselves with the best steaks.

This really shows how much Finny's view on the war has changed- first, he is encouraging it, relating his many games to the war and even wearing the pink shirt as an emblem for it. Now, it seems, he is in denial about it, and is trying to convince himself and everyone around him that it does not, and has never, exist(ed).

Why do you think that Finny has had such a sudden change of view? What's Gene's reaction to this? And, more importantly, what has the training that is triggered by the sudden disbelief symbolize in the plot?