3.) When Stanhope tells Gene about Finny, he cries. Why does he do this? What does this reveal about him? Explore the passage in the middle of page 64 to inform your answer.
3.) When Stanhope tells Gene about Finny, he cries. Why does he do this? What does this reveal about him? Explore the passage in the middle of page 64 to inform your answer.
In the novel A Separate Peace John Knowles in chapter 5 explores when Gene enters the infirmary but
before that Dr. Stanhope tells Gene that Finny won’t be able to play sports ever again. At this point Gene
starts to cry. One of the reasons that he cries is that he’s mad at himself for causing the tree incident to
happen. But I also think that he’s crying because he cares so much about Finny. Throughout the whole
book the theme of friendship is explored between Finny and Gene. This is another example of how much
they care about each other. I think that this reveals that Gene cares too much about Finny and Finny
cares too much about Gene to let the friendship go which is why when Gene went to tell Finny the truth
neither of them could have ended the friendship.
before that Dr. Stanhope tells Gene that Finny won’t be able to play sports ever again. At this point Gene
starts to cry. One of the reasons that he cries is that he’s mad at himself for causing the tree incident to
happen. But I also think that he’s crying because he cares so much about Finny. Throughout the whole
book the theme of friendship is explored between Finny and Gene. This is another example of how much
they care about each other. I think that this reveals that Gene cares too much about Finny and Finny
cares too much about Gene to let the friendship go which is why when Gene went to tell Finny the truth
neither of them could have ended the friendship.
On page 64 Gene says “ I burst out crying into my hands; I cried for Phineas and for myself and
for this doctor who believed in facing things.” This passage shows that Gene cares a lot about
Finny and it’s going to be really hard for Gene to live the rest of his life with the guilt of him
knowing that he caused the incident or so he thinks for now.
for this doctor who believed in facing things.” This passage shows that Gene cares a lot about
Finny and it’s going to be really hard for Gene to live the rest of his life with the guilt of him
knowing that he caused the incident or so he thinks for now.
Questions:
- Do you think that Gene caused the accident or he didn’t?
- Do you think their friendship will ever be the same that it ever was?
- Do you think this accident will affect Gene with his academics?
I don’t think that their friendship could ever be the same. That is if they choose to stay friends. If they don’t then Gene will have time to get over Finny and realize how much he was in his head. The more likely scenario is that they choose to stay friends. After Gene claims that he was going a little delusional after his long trip to Devon and blames that on why he said what he said, no one will forget that. Finny was in denial when Gene told him that it was Gene’s fault that caused Finny to fall. After this, if they don’t talk about it again, Gene will overthink things and get in head. The novel leading up to this point, Gene has mostly kept a lot of feelings and emotions to himself. When he let them out, he felt relieved but also hurt Finny. There are two options that Gene has to face. Either talk about the accident with Finny or not and get even more in his head or keep it to himself and make him go crazy bottling up his thoughts. Whichever one he picks, he will hurt Finny by telling him the accident wasn’t really an accident, or he will hurt himself, with another secret that will linger over his head for the rest of his life.
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ReplyDeleteI think the accident between Gene and Finny will affect Gene and his academics. First off, it will take awhile for Gene to figure out what caused Finny to fall off the branch. It is still unclear to him as to what happened and it will consume a lot of his time. In doing so, he may only focus on the event and not give any attention to school. This will cause him to not pay attention in class and his grades to fall with him. It can be clear that this is all Gene will be thinking of because it’s been the only subject for him since it’s happened. There has been no mention of school. I think that this will haunt him for the rest of his life and it can be assumed that it will after he came back to Devon for resolution when he was older.
I think their friendship will go back to normal and I think that it’ll grow to be even more than their friendship had been before the “accident”. I believe that Gene is going to be in so much denial that he’ll refuse to believe that he purposely made Finny fall off the tree so Finny will believe it wasn’t Gene’s fault that he fell off. This will cause their friendship to just continue from how it was before once Finny returns back to the Devon School. I believe that they will grow even closer because Gene is starting to realize that Finny wasn’t as bad of a friend as he thought he was. I think this “accident” will bring them closer than before because Gene will realize that Finny isn’t really that bad of a friend and that he’s actually a pretty good friend.
ReplyDeleteI think that Finny and Gene's friendship after experiencing all that has happened, won't go back to normal. After Gene's realize his mistake in making Finny fall off that tree, he has demonstrated an immense amount of guilt. This guilt will most likely increase the tension between the two's friendship slowly after Finny gets out of the hospital and will heavily strain their relationship. It is hard for me to imagine Gene every thinking of competing against Finny the way he used to after what he did. Do you think Finny will accept what Gene did?
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ReplyDeleteIt is very unclear wether Gene purposefully made Finny fall off the tree or not, and it doesn't seem like we will ever know. It is clear that Gene caused Finny to fall off but what is unclear is wether he intentionally did it or not. Genes intentions were not to hurt Finny but his actions told a different story. After the accident Gene has been struggling trying to figure out what really happened and what his intentions were. I think this incident had a huge effect on the dynamic of their relationship and I don't think their relationship will ever go back to normal. In the beginning of the novel Gene revisits the Devon school and goes directly to the tree. I think even after Gene graduated from Devon school he had this incident replaying in his head, trying to figure out what happened.
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ReplyDeleteFinny seems to be a good, supportive friend to Gene in ASP. Finny and Gene have been friends for so long that it would seem unlikely Finny doesn't accept what Gene did. On the other hand, sports is Finny's life. Throughout the novel so far, the readers can see that John Knowles describes Finny as the stereotypical jock who loves sports and doesn't care about school. Sure, Gene is important to Finny, but Gene ended Finny's entire sports career out of his own misinterpreted emotions. John Knowles shows Finny can make friends and socialize well, as he articulates his way out of trouble with teachers. I think Finny can easily leave Gene behind him out of anger and I would be supportive of him to do so. After all, the book is called "A Separate Peace," so the two friends probably separate and go on to live their own lives.
ReplyDeleteWill war bring Gene and Finny closer or separate them even more?
I think the accident will have serious effects on not only Gene’s personal life but also his academic life as he feels a sense of guilt about what happened to his best friend. The absence of Finny in Gene's life will be a constant reminder of the event and the feeling of guilt will overtake his mind and not allow him to focus and keep up with his academics. In addition, Gene second-guesses himself by not knowing whether he caused Finny to fall on purpose, or Finny fell on accident and this will drive him away from his focus on academics. Gene cares about Finny deeply and the possibility of their friendship not returning to how it was will consume his time and thoughts. He is not only worried about Finny’s physical state but also his mental state after the accident, this shows he cares about Finny. Gene worrying about Finny is going to further drag his attention away from academics and could allow him to obsess over the event.
ReplyDeleteI think the accident will have serious effects on not only Gene’s personal life but also his academic life as he feels a sense of guilt about what happened to his best friend. The absence of Finny in Gene's life will be a constant reminder of the event and the feeling of guilt will overtake his mind and not allow him to focus and keep up with his academics. In addition, Gene second-guesses himself by not knowing whether he caused Finny to fall on purpose, or Finny fell on accident and this will drive him away from his focus on academics. Gene cares about Finny deeply and the possibility of their friendship not returning to how it was will consume his time and thoughts. He is not only worried about Finny’s physical state but also his mental state after the accident, this shows he cares about Finny. Gene worrying about Finny is going to further drag his attention away from academics and could allow him to obsess over the event.
ReplyDeleteI don't think whether we will ever know if the accident was on purpose or not. This is mainly due to the fact that Gene doesn't know if he did it on purpose or not. There could be two explanations for this. One is that Gene forgot whether he did it on purpose sometime over the 20 years since this took place, but I think the more likely answer is that he had so many emotions running through his head like guilt and anger that his intentions got mixed up, and he didn't know what he wanted or didn't want, which caused him to jostle the branch in a moment of pure sub-conscious action. Although he did physically jostle the branch, I don't think he did it on purpose. Gene so far throughout the book has been genuinely docile character compared to others like Finny, and considering the fact this fall could've killed him, I don't think Gene has it in him to kill or seriously injure someone.
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