3) Why does Finny organize the Winter Carnival? Why is this significant? What is the impact and symbolism of the Winter Carnival? (Chapter 9)

Finny organizes the winter carnival to try and make it feel as though life has gone back to what it was in the summertime. He and Gene were naive and happy. Finny was great at sports, and he and Gene could play around all day. During this time, when Finny and Gene are walking back to the school, Gene thinks, “We were the best of friends at that moment...underfoot the healthy green turf was brushed with dew… we could see a faint green haze hanging above the grass, shot through with twilight sun.”(18) In this scene, Knowles portrays the Devon School as innocent. He uses the weather to show the student’s and teacher’s thoughts and feelings highlighting that they are naive about the war and reality. As Knowles changes the season to winter, students begin to enlist and teachers become stricter, while the weather becomes more dreary. Finny sees this and wishes he could go back to the summertime when life was easy and simple. He asks Gene to help him to make a carnival. This is significant because Finny is able, through the carnival, to put all of the other students including Gene, back into his naive reality. It is while this is happening that Gene thinks, “It wasn’t cider that made me at this moment champion of everything he ordered...It was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace” (137). In this passage, Gene is marveling at how they have created their own reality. The students were in an illusion. They were in Finny’s perfect reality, rather than the real world. The symbol of the winter carnival is that the students are still children, and enjoy things like carnivals. They may be preparing for war and being serious on the outside, but on the inside, the students at the Devon School are just kids.
Questions:

 What will happen when Finny and Gene find Leper?

Why does Knowles put Leper's letter at the end of this chapter

What will happen to Brinker and how will he change?

Will the other student at the school eventually succumb to Finny's 'alternate reality' or will Finny be pulled back into the real world.

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 29, 2020 at 4:29 AM

    Knowles puts Leper’s letter at the end of the chapter to push the plot forward. I believe that this will move Gene away from training for the Olympics and bring him and Finny back to reality. This will also prevent Gene from becoming Finny which is a bad route to take on his part. Gene training to make Finny happy won’t help him move on in life and he will still feel guilty. Lepers letter is a way of bringing Gene to the war and moving him away from Finny. If Finny decides to tag along with him, hopefully his idea of a “fake war” will change. Finny has been living in a little bubble as he’s always being the star of Devon and making trouble but getting away with it. Maybe by having Finny go with Gene will help him mature because after all, Leper asked for Gene, making Finny the unimportant one for a change.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 29, 2020 at 11:58 AM

    I think that it is becoming progressively harder for Finny to continue his fake-war narrative. In some way, everybody would like to think the war is fake, but reality does not allow this. Finny differs from the rest because they sheltered the world of the Devon campus to hide from the war, while others pretend to be mature and comprehending, choosing not to see that they do not fully understand. The war is always surrounding them, and John Knowles by explaining objects or seasons using terms usually used when in reference to war. Seeing as the novel is from a first-person narrative, this shows a change in Gene's thought process. The war enters his subconscious, always there but never completely relevant or important to him. Even as Leper leaves, it is obvious nobody fully thinks about it. Instead, he becomes their representative, something or someone they see the war's events through. Gene points out that if it was Brinker to instead leave first, people would not take it as lightly, seeing an opposite to Leper, Brinker is serious and dignified.

    Will there be repercussions for the children's activities at the carnival?

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousApril 29, 2020 at 12:05 PM

    I think that when Finny and Gene find Leper it will be difficult for Finny to maintain his fantasy world where the war isn't real. By putting Leper's letter at the end of this chapter, Knowles creates an even bigger rift in Gene and Finny's relationship. Finny's winter carnival was beginning to bring Gene and the other Devon students into Finny's world, but this letter shattered that fantasy, and snapped them back to reality. Devon has changed in the time that Finny was away, and he isn't regarded in the same way that he used to be. If Finny tries to continue to convince everyone that the war is a hoax he will lose credibility and his social ranking in the school could become even lower. Gene will also have to choose between his relationship with Finny and helping Leper who is clearly in trouble.

    Do you think that Finny will accept that the war is real?

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousApril 29, 2020 at 12:09 PM

    When Gene and Finny find Leper, I think their ‘alternate reality’ will become more of a fantasy, and they will be brought back into the real world. Throughout the time that Leper has been gone, Finny and Gene have only been hanging out with each other, making it very easy to keep their ‘alternate reality’ life going. When Leper becomes part of Finny and Gene's friend group again, I think that he will bring them back to reality. I also think that by bringing Leper back John Knolwes is trying to bring back the war to Finny and Genes life, and it will be almost impossible for Finny to ignore there isn’t a war going on.

    Will Leper make Finny and Gene even more afraid of the war?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousApril 29, 2020 at 1:24 PM

      Will Leper make Finny and Gene even more afraid of the war?
      At the end of chapter 9, we learned as readers that Leper was in trouble and hiding, and asked Gene to come and save him. And as Ollie said, most likely, Finny will also come along, in order for Knowles to create room for more change in their relationship. Once the two find Leper, I think their view on the war and whats happening will change, along with their view on the entire world. Firstly, it’s clear in Lepers note that he’s very scared and most likely in danger. This means that in order for Gene and Finny to find him, they’ll need to go through dangerous areas, and be forced face to face with war. Then, once they make it through all of that, they’ll be confronted with the image of their friend extremely scared, and possibly hurt. I think then, is when they will truly be scared. What this will do to both of them, is show that the war is truly there, and can’t just be avoided like they have been doing. Once this realization hits, they’ll be hit with another, which is that they’ve been living in a fantasy world, and need to get out. So to summarize, Gene and Finny’s face to face confrontation of the damages of war will be what exposes them to their view on the real world, forcing them to acknowledge how they’ve been denying it the whole time.

      How might they act once they return with their new realization?
      Do you think they’ll both have the realization, or one will continue to deny?

      Delete
    2. AnonymousApril 30, 2020 at 5:27 AM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. AnonymousApril 30, 2020 at 5:29 AM

      Finny continues to be in a state of denial. He has denied the fact that Gene ruined his sports career. He has denied the fact that WW2 is ongoing. But, on the other hand, Gene is also thinking unrealistic. He thinks he can participate in the next Olympics as a kid who worked as a crew manager instead of playing sports.
      Both kids have unrealistic fantasies which every kid has had at one point. Once there is a real sign to the boys that war is real, such as a bombing or Leper gets shot, they will continue to deny the reality. The winter killing all signs of nature and everything being dull relates to the boys' real life. They set up a carnival to take their minds off it and be kids, but throughout all of this, the snow can't be removed. The snow is the thoughts of war: losing your best friend, blood, and death. It would be impossible to shovel all the snow in a few days. When something tragic happens to the boys or near Devon, they will realize this war is not run by old and fat men.

      Will Leper return with good or bad news?

      Delete
  5. AnonymousApril 29, 2020 at 5:47 PM

    Leper's letter was put at the end of the chapter not only to push the plot but to show Finny that the war is real. Finny has been trying to distracting himself from what is really happening with things like the carnival, but now that there is a pressing issue he will need to jump back to reality. The very last lines of the chapter makes it seems like Gene has found something to invest himself in, before in the chapter it seems like he was sort of lost. The news about Leper is obviously bad but it could help Gene in the long run. Finny and Gene have only been hanging out with each other for the past couple weeks so when they find Leper or at least work with the other boys to find him they will be able to interact with other people. Now after all the build up of the friendship and shunning all the problems they face, Gene and Finny will finally have to face them when seeing Leper.

    How do you think finding Leper will change their friendship?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. leilabpApril 29, 2020 at 6:45 PM

      I think that Leper will start to get in the way of Finny and Gene's friendship. While Finny was away and Gene didn't have many friends, Leper was there to keep him company. I feel like Leper is a very reliable character and friend, unlike Finny, so it was helpful for Gene to have somebody steady when Finny was gone. Now that Finny is back, I bet it's hard to Gene to figure out who to hang out with. I think that one of the most important parts of the letter that John Knowles purposely put in as foreshadowing, is how Leper signs his letter. He says '(signed) your best friend'. This is a complete change to where the novel has been going with Gene and Finny unconditionally best friends. I believe that this will come back in the future and drive a wedge between their friendship.

      Delete
  6. AnonymousApril 29, 2020 at 8:08 PM

    I think Finny will eventually be pulled back into the real world, especially now that Leper sent the letter. At the end of the chapter when Finny and Gene read the letter, their attitudes immediately changed, “I watched Finny’s face pass through all the graduations between uproariousness and shock. I took the telegram from Phineas, facing in advance whatever the destruction was”(137). In this moment, Gene and Finny snap back to reality. I think once they find Leper, Finny’s little world will be demolished. In this quote, Gene first calls Finny by his nickname, then he refers to him as Phineas, which can symbolize the change from their carefree feeling from the carnival to the sudden shock from the letter.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousApril 30, 2020 at 6:21 AM

    I think Finny will either realize the weight of the war, or become angry at Leper. Throughout the chapter, we saw Finny not take part in jokes or activities about Leper, and even insulted him at one point. I think seeing him deserted from the army will make him mad at Leper, as he will be upset that Leper abandoned his duty as a soldier and disobeyed the country, something which Finny is most likely very loyal too. Either that, or Finny will finally understand that the war really is going on, maybe after Leper tells stories of him training with other soldiers. After this Finny will be much different, like more quiet or held back.

    ReplyDelete

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