A Seperate Peice Essay, Research Paper
Gene Forrester is a quiet, intellectual student at Devon School in New Hampshire. During the Summer Session of 1942, he becomes close friends with his daredevil roommate Finny, who has a talent for getting away with mischief through his sincere, disarming charisma. Finny prods Gene into making a dangerous jump out of a tree into a river, and the two start a secret society based on this ritual. Gene envies Finny’s astonishing athletic abilities, and he begins to suspect that Finny envies his superior academic achievements and has been taking steps to distract him from his studies. His suspicions turn to hatred, but he makes sure to maintain an appearance of friendship so Finny will not suspect him. Gene realizes he was grievously mistaken about the existence of any rivalry between them one day when Finny expresses a sincere desire to see Gene succeed. He goes to the tree to jump with Finny while he is still in a state of shock from the force of his realization, and when Finny gets out to the edge of the branch, Gene shakes it, causing Finny to fall to the bank and shatter his leg. The doctor tells Gene that Finny’s athletic days are over. Gene goes in to see Finny and begins to confess what he has done, but the doctor interrupts him and Finny is sent home before Gene gets another chance. The Summer Session ends, and Gene goes home for a brief vacation. On his way back to the school from his home in the South, Gene stops by Finny’s house and confesses that he shook the branch on purpose. Finny refuses to listen to him, and Gene takes back his confession and continues on to school. World War II is in full swing, and the boys at Devon are all eager to enlist in the military. A prominent class politician, Brinker Hadley, suggests to Gene that they go off to enlist together, and Gene agrees. That night he finds Finny has returned to school, though, and he drops his plans to enlist, as does Brinker. Finny expects Gene to take his place as the school’s sports star, and when Gene protests that sports no longer seem important in the midst of the War, Finny declares the War is all a massive hoax. Finny tells Gene he once had aspirations to go to the Olympics, and Gene agrees to train for the 1944 Olympics in his place. Everyone is surprised when a gentle, naturalistic boy named Leper Lepellier becomes the first one in their class to enlist. Gene and Finny go on training, shielded within their private version of world events. During a winter carnival Finny has organized, a telegram arrives for Gene from Leper, saying he has escaped and desperately needs him to come to his home in Vermont. Gene goes and finds that Leper has gone slightly mad. Leper, who was present at Finny’s accident, reveals that he knows the truth about what happened. Gene becomes frightened by Leper’s ranting because of its possible implications for his own reactions to military life, and he runs away back to Devon. When Brinker hears of what has happened to Leper, he laments in front of Finny that Devon has already lost two of its potential soldiers. Gene, afraid that Finny will be hurt by this remark, tries to get him to launch into his hoax story again, but Finny lays it to rest. Brinker has always harbored suspicions that Gene had something to do with Finny’s accident, and in an attempt to dispel them once and for all, he organizes a midnight tribunal of schoolboys and has Gene and Finny summoned without warning. They question the two about what happened, but Finny is too confused about the whole thing to speak conclusively, and Gene maintains he does not remember. They bring in Leper, who was seen earlier that day skulking about the bushes, and he begins to implicate Gene in causing the accident. Finny declares he does not care about the facts and rushes out of the room. He falls down the stairs and breaks his leg again. Gene sneaks over to the Infirmary that night to see him, and Finny sends him away angrily. Gene wanders the campus until he falls asleep under the football stadium. The next morning, he goes to see Finny again and tells him he is sorry and that his action did not arise from hatred. Finny accepts this explanation and the two are reconciled. While the doctor attempts to set Finny’s leg, a piece of marrow detaches from the bone and stops Finny’s heart, killing him. Gene does not cry when he hears the news, because he feels he has become a part of Finny and will always be with him. The boys graduate and go off to enlist in relatively safe branches of the military; Gene is glad that at least his coming regimentation will not take place at Devon, where he spent his idyllic summer. Gene Forrester – The narrator of the novel. The main body of the story begins when he and the other boys are 16 years old. Gene is thoughtful and intelligent, with a tendency to brood. He is extremely competitive, has a sarcastic sense of humor, and shuns overt displays of emotion, just like most students at Devon. Finny (Phineas) – Finny is honest, handsome, self-confident, utterly disarming, extremely likable, the best athlete in the school; in short, he is perfect in almost every way. He has a talent for engaging others with his spontaneity and sheer joy of living. His guileless rebelliousness makes even the sternest proponents of order indulge in moments of anarchical bliss with him. Finny lives for moments of pure, unrestrained friendship, and his strong sense of loyalty extends to any group of which he is a member, including (Gene muses) the human race as a whole. Brinker Hadley – A charismatic class politician with an inclination for orderliness and organization. He is very straight and conservative; his one striking characteristic is his large behind. He has complete confidence in his own abilities and has a tendency to carry his ideas through with startling efficiency and even a degree of ruthlessness. He will go to any lengths to discover the facts when he feels they are hidden from him, even when they are best left unknown. Leper Lepellier – His real first name is Elwin, but only his mother ever bothers to use it. A mild, gentle boy from Vermont who adores nature and engages in peaceful, naturalistic hobbies. He is not popular at Devon, but pays no attention to such things. He is often taken by surprise, most especially by the war. Chet Douglass – Gene’s main rival for the position of class valedictorian. He is an excellent tennis and trumpet player, and possesses a sincere love of learning. Quackenbush – His first name is Cliff, but no one ever uses it. He has been systematically disliked at Devon from the start, and he takes any opportunity to take out his frustrations on anyone he can consider inferior to himself. Mr. Ludsbury – The master in charge of Gene’s dormitory. A stern disciplinarian, he thrives on orderliness and the unquestioning obedience of schoolboys. Dr. Stanpole – Devon’s resident medical doctor. A caring man who regrets the troubles that afflict the youth of Gene’s generation. Gene Forrester returns to the Devon School in New Hampshire in 1958, 15 years after he graduated. He walks around the school and reflects on how fearful he was there during the War. He ruins his shoes trudging across the soggy playing fields to look at a tree by the river, which he picks with some difficulty out of a grove of similar trees. After pondering the tree for a while, he turns to go in out of the rain. At this point, the narrative flashes back to the summer of 1942, when Gene is 16. He stands at the foot of the tree with his friend Phineas, called Finny, and three other boys, Elwin “Leper” Lepellier, Chet Douglass, and Bobby Zane. Finny tries to persuade them to jump off a branch of the tree into the river, a feat no Upper Middler (as their class is called) has ever tried before. Finny jumps first to show them it is possible, and then sends Gene up for his turn. Gene jumps silently in a mild state of shock, but the other three refuse. The boys head back to the center of campus, Finny and Gene walking side by side. Finny tells Gene he was very good once he shamed him into jumping; Gene denies being shamed into it, knowing that he was. The school bell rings, signaling dinner, and Finny teases Gene for hurrying to be on time for dinner. He wrestles Gene to the ground while the others run ahead. Finny and Gene miss dinner and go straight to their room to do homework. This first chapter establishes the narrator’s position as a man looking back on an incident in his adolescence from a perspective of greater maturity and wisdom. The narrative never returns to his visit to the school in 1958, but it does flash ahead at some points to offer brief scenes from his life after graduation that relate somehow to his life at school, which is told chronologically. During the adult scene, Gene hints at major points in the plot, most notably “a death by violence”; this catches the reader’s attention and leaves him to wonder just who will be killed and how it relates to the tree Gene describes so ominously. Another important point Gene describes is the terrible fear in which he lived his life at Devon. Even as he hints at these plot points, however, he emphasizes the degree to which his view of them has changed, how he has grown personally and how the world around him has changed. He stresses the importance of perception in influencing one’s thoughts and feelings, how his memory has exaggerated the tree’s size and appearance because of what it meant to him, and how the giants of his childhood have shrunken relatively as he has grown. He quotes a proverb in French, “the more things remain the same, the more they change”; this is an important theme in this chapter and offers a way of looking at the rest of the book. Gene attaches great importance to places as reflections of the psychological impact of some event or character associated with them, and his descriptions of settings seem to convey subtle information about the plot and characters as well as his own inner life throughout the book. Perhaps this is why the narrative opens with Gene’s return to places that hold such dear meaning for him, places of profound fear and uncontrollable joy. Seeing these places again with a new perspective affects him deeply, and he describes himself as changed and grateful for the experience after going out to see the tree. Gene’s discussion of Devon’s architecture is especially significant to this theme. He describes it as representing the “contentious harmony” of the school as a whole (meaning its social as well as physical aspects), and admires it for its slow growth into harmony with the past, a feat he wishes to achieve himself. The symbolic aspect of the setting of the school (and all other settings) is extremely personal for Gene. He says, for instance, that he feels as if the school did not really exist except when he was there; its meaning for him stems from his own experiences there, so on one level, it really did not exist except in his presence. The marble stairs in the First Academy Building hold a wealth of meaning for him, which he only discovers as he contemplates them during his lonely tour of the campus. He concludes from the shallowness of the depressions worn in them after decades of use that they must be especially hard, a fact he now realizes is crucial to an understanding of his early experiences. The hardness of the stairs represents an important abstract concept, perhaps the durability of the school itself, and offers insight into a more concrete element of the plot, as the stairs will play an important role in the story’s climax. In the flashback section of this chapter, Knowles describes the two main characters and their friendship. Finny is established as a charismatic daredevil with a talent for manipulating others (although it is unclear how consciously contrived this manipulation is) and a need to live by his own rules. Gene is a thoughtful introvert temporarily experimenting with sarcasm, which he later concludes is a sign of a weak personality. They bond with each other in their dangerous act, but Finny is clearly the dominant partner in their friendship, and Gene already shows slight hints of resenting this. Also important to this section is the influence of World War II and its impact on the boys’ lives. The class ahead prepares for going off to war, and Finny expresses at several points a wish to be patriotic and soldierly. Mr. Prud’homme, a substitute master for the Summer Session, comes by the next morning to discipline Gene and Finny for missing dinner, but he is soon won over by Finny’s gregarious conversation. Finny decides to wear a bright pink shirt as an emblem of celebration of the first Allied bombing of Central Europe. Gene envies him slightly for getting away with wearing this shirt (which he says makes him look like a fairy) and virtually anything else he wants to do. Mr. Patch-Withers, the substitute headmaster, holds tea that afternoon. As he discusses the bombing with Finny, his wife notices Finny is wearing the school tie as a belt. Gene waits expectantly to see him get in trouble, but Finny manages to talk his way out of it and accomplishes the impossible feat of making the stern Mr. Patch-Winters laugh. Finny and Gene leave the party together laughing, and Finny suggests a jump from the tree and pushes Gene along toward the river. Finny refuses to believe the Allies really bombed central Europe, and Gene concurs. They swim for a while in the river, and Finny asks if Gene is still afraid of the tree. Gene says he is not, and they agree to jump together to form a new secret society, which they call the “Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session.” When they get out on the limb, Gene turns back to Finny to make a delaying remark and loses his balance. Finny catches him, and then they both jump. In this chapter, Gene begins to acknowledge his envy of Finny. He wishes he was as skillful at getting away with unconventional actions as Finny and covets his various abilities and popularity, but he consoles himself since having him as a best friend is a compliment and a sign of achievement in itself. He decides that Finny does not take advantage of people, but is simply an extraordinary person that people naturally like. Gene finds himself wanting to see Finny get in trouble, but only for the thrill of it, not to cause Finny’s actual downfall. This excuse is transparent, though, and reveals an inner conflict that will become more important as the story progresses.Finny lives for moments of unrestrained friendship with anyone who will offer it to him, even the masters, and his casual ignorance of the rules wears down the school’s general austerity. The masters act much less suspicious and disapproving of the students during the school’s first Summer Session, and Finny interprets this as a sign of greater maturity on the masters’ part. This relaxed atmosphere, allowing the boys more freedom than usual, comes partly from the way the boys remind the masters of peace and innocence in this time of war; the boys are one of the few groups of people left who can truly enjoy themselves. Gene is not ashamed of the selfish happiness he and the other boys relish, and he cites it as the reason he and Finny cannot believe in the bombings in Europe. The War is still too far removed to be real. The Super Suicide Society gets off to a successful start that night as Finny convinces six other boys to sign on as inductees. Finny creates rules spontaneously, including one requiring him and Gene to start each meeting by jumping out of the tree; Gene hates this rule and never gets used to the jump. They hold meetings every night and Gene never misses one, even though he is bitterly afraid every time he jumps. Finny, who loves sports above all else, is disgusted with the Summer Session’s athletic program, especially the inclusion of badminton, and spontaneously invents a new sport called blitzball one afternoon with a medicine ball he finds lying on the ground. The sport catches on immediately, and Finny becomes its unrivaled master. One day, Finny and Gene are at the pool alone, and Finny decides to break one of the swimming records. He breaks the record on his first attempt, but only Gene witnesses it. Finny refuses to try again in public and forbids Gene to tell anyone about it. Finny remains uncharacteristically silent for a while before proposing that they go to the beach, which is hours away by bicycle and strictly forbidden; Gene agrees and they slip away down a back road. The ocean is cold with heavy surf and the sand is scorching hot; Finny enjoys himself immensely and tries to keep Gene entertained. They eat dinner at a hot dog stand and each has a glass of beer with forged draft cards before settling down to sleep on the dunes. Finny tells Gene he is glad he came along and that they are best friends; Gene starts to say the same, but holds back at the last moment. This chapter further develops Gene’s relationship with Finny. The nightly jump out of the tree becomes a source of smoldering resentment for Gene. He fears the jump, but fears losing Finny’s respect even more, which leads to tension that he tries to suppress. This tension is evident when Finny stops Gene from falling out of the tree, practically saving his life; Gene feels no great gratitude because he remembers his life would not have been in danger in the first place had it not been for Finny. Finny is strongly individualistic and prizes the freedom to live by his own rules. Gene allows Finny to create rules for him. The idea of simply refusing to jump out of the tree never occurs to Gene, even though complying goes against his instincts. This same force acts on Gene when he agrees to go to the beach with Finny. He does not want to go, risks expulsion in going, but does not consider refusing. Gene really does not understand Finny, although he has not yet recognized this. Finny does things for sheer personal enjoyment and assumes on some level that everyone else does so as well. He sees sports as an absolute good at which everyone wins simply by participating; to think otherwise would indicate some sort of disloyalty in beating someone else at a game. Finny breaks the swimming record just to see if he can, and refuses the opportunity to do it officially. This absolutely bewilders Gene, even more than Finny’s incredible feat of taking up an entirely new sport and excelling at it with no practice whatsoever. Here Gene hints at the key to the fundamental, ultimately fatal difference between the two of them when he says Finny seemed to him at that moment too unusual for rivalry, the basis of most relationships at Devon. Unlike Gene and just about every other student at Devon, Finny does not see himself as competing against his classmates in everything he does. When Finny courageously puts forth a show of bare emotion in telling Gene he is his best friend, Gene knows he should return the sentiment, but he (like most Devon students) is not used to such emotional honesty and feels somewhat frightened by it. Something even deeper than the constraints of conventionality holds him back from replying to Finny. In retrospect, Gene decides that perhaps he did not reply because deep down, he truly did not feel towards Finny what Finny felt towards him. Gene places the truth on a level of emotion deeper than thought. Gene awakens with the dawn. Finny wakes up after a short while and goes for a quick swim before they head for home. They arrive just in time for Gene’s ten o’clock test in trigonometry, which he flunks. It is the first time he has ever failed a test, but Finny gives him little time to worry about it. They play blitzball all afternoon and have a meeting of the Super Suicide Society after dinner. That night, Gene tries to catch up on his trigonometry, and Finny tells him he works too hard. Finny accuses him of trying to be class valedictorian, and Gene denies it. Suddenly, he realizes that he wants to be valedictorian, so he can match Finny and all his athletic awards. Gene asks Finny if he would mind if he did end up head of the class. Finny jokingly says he would kill himself out of envy; Gene realizes that the jocular tone is a screen and that he is serious. Gene is highly disturbed at his realization of the rivalry between them, and he concludes that all Finny’s overtures of friendship and his insistence that Gene share in all his diversions are calculated attempts to ruin Gene’s chances for academic success equal to Finny’s athletic achievements. Gene works to become an exceptional student, and begins to surpass his only real rival, Chet Douglass. Finny cannot compete with Gene academically, but he intensifies his studying as well; Gene interprets this as an attempt to even out the sides of the rivalry, since Gene is an excellent student and a fairly good athlete, while Finny is an excellent athlete but a poor student. Despite Gene’s suspicions of Finny, the two get along well in the weeks that follow. The masters give up their pretenses of discipline, and one day Gene tells Mr. Prud’homme about his trip to the beach with Finny and finds him completely unconcerned with their rule breaking. Gene continues to attend the nightly meetings of the Suicide Society so as not to let on to Finny that he knows anything is wrong between them.One night as Gene studies for a French final, Finny comes into the room and announces that Leper Lepellier is planning on jumping from the tree that night to become a full member of the club. Gene does not believe Leper will ever make the jump for real and concludes Finny must have put him up to the attempt to interfere with his studying. Gene complains that his grade will be ruined and begins to storm out to the tree, and Finny tells him casually that he does not have to come along if he wants to study, as it is only a game. Finny says he did not realize that Gene ever had to study, that he thought his academic prowess came naturally to him. He expresses admiration of Gene’s intelligence and says he should be serious about something at which he excels; he tells Gene to stay and study. Gene says he has studied enough and insists on going to see Leper jump.As they walk toward the tree, Gene decides that there must never have been any rivalry between them, and that he is not of the same quality as Finny. Finny proposes a double jump with Gene, and they strip and ascend the tree. Finny goes out onto the limb first, and when Gene steps out, his knees bend and he jostles the limb, causing Finny to lose his balance and fall with a sickening thud to the bank. Gene then moves out to the end of the limb and dives with a calm certainty he has never had before. Gene’s envy climaxes in this chapter and crushes Finny in its denouement. Finny’s teasing of Gene about his aspirations to be valedictorian causes Gene to evaluate the motives behind his ambitions–he realizes that they stem from an intensely competitive spirit and a fear of being shown up, which naturally results in envying someone as talented as Finny. Gene dislikes this tendency in himself, and he turns outward to see if he can find something along the same lines in Finny. He latches onto some rather dubious evidence and concludes Finny must harbor the same pettiness and duplicity that he does, and their friendship abruptly shatters in Gene’s mind. Not just this particular friendship, but the idea of friendship itself dissolves for Gene, and he feels he can trust no one. He looks desperately for some thought to comfort him in his newfound misery and clings to the idea that whatever their external differences, he and Finny are even in enmity and cold, calculating self- interest. He hated Finny for breaking the swimming record; Finny must have hated him for his good grades. Gene interprets Finny’s increased studying as an attempt to even things out in the rivalry and increases his own efforts to make sure he stays ahead of Finny in the system of comparison he has devised. Gene deplores forgetting the rivalry for even a moment and letting himself fall periodically into affection for Finny again. He guards against the seductive beauty of the summer and actively tries not to be affected by the joyfulness and promise of the days because he knows there is hate around him, and he wants to dwell on that alone. Gene becomes cunning and devious and assumes Finny is as well. He attends the Suicide Society meetings because he doesn’t want Finny to understand him the same way he understands Finny. Gene doesn’t want to be excelled at jumping off the tree, but he believes that outward contests don’t matter since he and Finny are the same on the inside with their “lonely, selfish ambition.” Gene believes Finny is just acting when he looks like he does not know what is wrong with him when he tells him Leper is about to jump, but Finny slowly proves to him that he is sincere and honestly doesn’t take things as seriously as he does. Finny casually tells Gene not to go to the tree if he has other things to do, a thought which never occurred to Gene, for whom everything important takes place internally, so much so that he often cannot formulate plans for outward action. Gene is horrified when he realizes his mistake. The fear brought on by the ensuing doubt of his own understanding is worse even than that of the tree; Gene thinks he must have been utterly wrong in his opinion of Finny and decides Finny is much better than him on the inside. Gene climbs the tree completely stunned by his revelation and feels that nothing matters at all. When he jostles the limb, the narrative reveals no direct motivation or even intention; it is somewhat ambiguous as to whether he shook the limb on purpose or accidentally. The narrative generally reflects only what Gene thinks at the present moment in the story in this chapter, without much guidance from Gene’s older self as the narrator. This allows the reader to believe along with Gene that Finny is a selfish, conniving back-stabber and also leaves one of the central questions of the novel, whether or not Gene intended to hurt Finny, open to interpretation. An important theme in the book begins to come out in this chapter, that of transformation. The first transformation in this chapter comes as Finny reminds Gene of Lazarus, a Biblical character brought back to life by the touch of Christ, as he lies on the beach and wakes from a deathly sleep. More subtle transformations are that of Finny’s friendship into betrayal and enmity and the transformation that occurs when Gene projects his own envy and bitter competitiveness onto Finny. All these transformations occur entirely in Gene’s perception, but they generally result in real transformations of Gene’s attitude and behavior. Finny’s leg is shattered. Everyone speaks about Finny’s injury to Gene in the days following, but no one suspects him of any wrongdoing. Gene spends an increasing amount of time alone in his room. One day, he decides to put on Finny’s shoes, pants, and pink shirt; when he looks in the mirror, he sees himself as Finny and feels relieved. The feeling of transformation lasts through the night but is gone in the morning, and Gene is confronted once more with what he has done to Finny. That morning at chapel, Dr. Stanpole tells him Finny is feeling better and could use a visit. He says his leg will recover enough for him to walk again, but he will no longer be able to play sports. Gene bursts into tears, and the doctor tries to comfort him and tells him he must be strong for Finny. He says Finny asked to see him specifically, and Gene concludes that he must want to accuse him to his face. Gene goes in to see Finny and asks him what happened at the tree. Finny says something made him lose his balance and he looked over to him to see if he could reach him. Gene recoils violently and accuses Finny of wanting to drag him down, too. Finny explains calmly that he just wanted to keep from falling. Gene says that he tried to catch hold of him, but he was gone too fast. Finny tells him he has the same shocked expression now that he did on the tree. Gene asks if he remembers what made him fall, and Finny hints that he had a vague notion that Gene had caused it, but he refuses to accept this and apologizes for even considering it. Gene realizes that if Finny were in his position, he would tell the truth. He rises quickly and tells Finny he has something terrible to say to him, but just then Dr. Stanpole comes in and sends him away. The next day, the doctor decides Finny is not well enough to receive visitors, and soon after he is taken by ambulance to his home outside Boston. The Summer Session ends and Gene goes home for a month’s vacation. In September, Gene starts for Devon by train and is delayed considerably. He catches a taxi at Boston’s South Station, but instead of taking it to North Station for the last leg of the trip to Devon, he goes to Finny’s house. He finds Finny propped up before a fireplace with hospital-type pillows. Finny is pleased (although not surprised) to see him and asks what happened to him down south. Gene tells him a humorous story, and then he says that he was thinking about him and his accident on the trip. He tells Finny that he deliberately shook the limb to make him fall. Finny refuses to believe him. Gene realizes he has injured him further with his confession and that he must take it back, but he cannot do it there. Finny says he will be back at school by Thanksgiving. Gene tries to take back his comments by saying he has had a long trip and has not slept much. Finny tells him not to worry about it, and Gene makes an amiable exit. The masters seem particularly affected by Finny’s tragedy and feel it is especially unfair for someone young who can still enjoy a measure of peace and happiness during the War. Gene feels intense guilt for Finny’s fall, as he believes he shook the branch on purpose. No one shows any suspicion of him, so he does not develop the strength to defend himself from any accusations (including his own). He believes Finny must know that his fall was not accidental, but is just too sick or too noble to tell anyone it was Gene’s fault. Gene is still reeling from the force of his revelation that Finny was never his rival, and he feels that he does not know Finny at all. He does not realize the extent of Finny’s injury or its implications for the rest of his life, and he is crushed when Dr. Stanpole tells him how serious it is. He goes in to see Finny, still fully expecting him to accuse of him shaking the limb. He feels cornered as he talks to Finny and reacts defensively to everything he says. Finny, in his drugged state, reveals that he remembers the events of the day perfectly and knows enough to suspect the truth, but because he is not sure, he rejects the unfavorable explanation that Gene maliciously shook him off the tree. He actually apologizes for suspecting the truth, and Gene sees that he is making up a new commandment for himself never to accuse a friend of a crime without solid evidence. This contrasts completely with Gene’s unspoken accusation and conviction of Finny as a duplicitous friend before, and he realizes painfully how ludicrous it was for him ever to think Finny suffered from the same shortcomings that he does. Gene wonders what Finny would do in his situation and decides he would confess everything, and he starts to do exactly that until Dr. Stanpole enters and stops him. As a result of this interruption, the incident does not close for Gene, and he cannot move on with his life. He senses time suspended with the close of the Summer Session, and he feels detached and uninterested at home. He again experiences a loss of agency when he goes to Finny’s house, as he intends to go to North Station but hears himself give Finny’s address instead (this passage is much like the scene on the tree, when Gene says his knees bent instead of saying he bent his knees to jostle the tree). To Gene, Finny’s house seems intimately connected with his character. Gene is extremely concerned about the atmosphere of the place and finds it difficult to break into talk about the tree incident after Finny has drawn him into his friendly, congenial aura. Gene wishes he had met Finny in some impersonal setting like a train station to make his confession. He fears the confession would be even more damaging in this highly personal setting, that it would tear apart the atmosphere of the place and seem too unreal to be accepted. He chooses an impersonal, antique chair to sit in for his announcement to distance himself as much as possible from Finny’s intimate environment. Gene thinks for a moment that Finn
That night, Brinker comes into their room with several other boys and takes Gene and Finny off to the Assembly Hall, where he has gathered an audience and a panel of judges for an inquiry into the cause of Finny’s accident. Brinker asks Finny to explain what happened on the tree in his own words, and Finny reluctantly says he lost his balance and fell. Boys from the audience ask what caused him to fall and inquire about Gene’s whereabouts at the time. Finny says he thinks Gene was at the bottom of the tree, and Gene agrees that he was, but that he cannot remember exactly what happened. Finny remembers he had suggested a double jump and that they were climbing the tree together, and Gene struggles to defend the discrepancy in his story. Brinker laments that Leper is not there, as he could have remembered everyone’s exact position. Finny quietly announces that he saw Leper slip into Dr. Carhart’s office that morning, and the two boys are sent to find him. After a while, they return with Leper, who seems falsely confident and composed. They ask him what happened, and he says he saw two people on the tree silhouetted against the sun, and one of them shook the other one off the branch. Brinker asks Leper to name the people and say who moved first, but Leper replies he will not incriminate himself and does not want to do anything for anyone else anymore. As Brinker tries to bring Leper back to his senses, Finny rises and says he does not care what happened and then rushes out of the room in tears. They hear him run down the hall and fall down the marble stairs. This chapter focuses on the shattering of Finny’s illusions. The first fallen illusion is his belief in the persistence of peace (and the 1944 Olympics), followed by his more important illusory faith in the unshaken strength of his friendship with Gene. Significantly, Brinker has a hand in dispelling both of these. Finny’s illusions comfort Gene as well as Finny by giving him a refuge from the confusions of the world around him and his own character. After coming from seeing Leper, Gene immediately seeks out Finny, who believes only in the classical, Olympian conflict of athletics, in which victory goes to the strongest in body and heart. Significantly, he finds Finny playing at the edge of the Devon woods, which he imagines as the beginning of a great American wilderness. The snowball fight shows Finny’s wildness and competitiveness as he creates teams and then shifts loyalties abruptly. This transformation from chaos to order and back seems to be a common pattern in Finny’s schemes, and Gene will later allude to it in telling him why he is not cut out for war. Another transformation has occurred in the boys, so that when Finny calls the snowball fight a Hitler Youth outing, everyone laughs, whereas before they wanted only to play the role of good American soldiers-in-training and would have taken offense at a joke like this. A small section in this chapter is singled out with page breaks for greater attention in which Finny says his leg is getting stronger and Gene seems more thankful for this than Finny himself. The atmosphere in Gene and Finny’s room is significant, as the walls bear pictures representing fallen illusions: Finny has a picture of Roosevelt and Churchill, whom he calls the two most important fat old men in the hoax; and Gene has pictures of a plantation that he used to pass off as his own heritage but now has outgrown as he has begun to get a sense of his true identity. Gene is tired of having to mislead people. Brinker closes quickly on the truth about Leper, while Finny insists one last time on his belief that there is no war. After he hears about Leper and Brinker points out that he cannot go to war, Finny reveals with a rare ironic remark that his delusions about the war were an entirely self-conscious invention, a defense mechanism to shield him from the reality of not being able to participate in world events because of his leg. After this, he and Gene no longer have the crutch of their private peace and hopes for the 1944 Olympics. They reminisce fondly about their former delusions at one point and try to recapture something of their protective quality in retrospect, but Finny stresses that above all else, they must believe in each other (