Sunday, April 19, 2015
Assignment #1 (pages 9-20) Question #3 (two specific things Gene notices when he revisits TFAB and the tree)
When Gene revisits Devon, he goes to two specific places: The First Academy Building, and the tree that he and Phineas dared to jump off. As he is visiting these places, he notices how much he has changed since he has last been there. Upon arriving in the marble foyer of The First Academy Building, he thinks about how hard the stairs must be, because so many students have walked on them. Gene reminisces about how he walked those stairs multiple times a day. The stairs have remained the same, but Gene has changed. He is now "taller, bigger...had more money and success" (Knowles, 12). After visiting The First Academy Building, Gene determinately trudges to the tree by the bank. He is stunned at how many identical trees there are lining the bank, because in his memory the tree is the only one there is. When Gene finally reaches the tree, which is extremely illustrious in his mind, he observes how feeble and weak the once-intimidating tree it used to be. Knowles had Gene realize how much he had grown, both physically and mentally, since he was last at the school. Things (such as the tree) that once felt so frightening, now seemed old and worn down. The memories that Gene had of Devon are redrawn in his mind when he visits his old school.
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The tree was different from what he remembers. However, it is not the tree that has changed very much; it is his memory. It has been fifteen years since Gene jumped off of that tree on a dare from Finny. At the time, it was one of his most frightening experiences. His relationship with the tree, in this way, is reminiscent of his relationship with Finny. Gene was intimidated by the tree, and he liked it for just that reason. Finny was a very charismatic and intimidating boy, and Gene felt the same attraction to him. After fifteen years, he has contorted both his idol and his dare into something bigger than they were. When he comes back to see the tree that frightened him so much as a boy, he sees how exaggerated his memories of it are.
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