Gene receives a call from Phinny who is still bedridden in
his house. They begin talking about Gene’s rooming situation, and how Phinny
can move back into their room because Gene has no roommate. Phinny soon brings
the topic of sports and Gene confesses to him that he is not playing a sport,
but instead he is assistant managing the crew team. Gene does not want to play
a sport because, “ They were barred from me, as though when Dr. Stanpole said,
‘ Sports are finished’ he had been speaking to me” (Knowles 84) which Phinny
thinks is crazy. Though out the book Gene has had some sense of “being” Phineas
or Phineas wanting to be him. They were they same size, same height, and
according to Gene often wore each other’s clothes. Being a part of Phineas is
all Gene really wants, when Phinny says,” Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re
going to play them for me,” (Knowles 85). This gives Gene the idea that Phinny
wants him, to be him and take over his role in athletics and at Devon because
Phinny is unable to be there.
Monday, April 27, 2015
Assignment 5 Question 4 Re-read the last sentence of chapter 6 (p84-85). Explain what is happening in the quote (establish context) and then explore and explain the last part “I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become part of Phineas” (85)
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I agree with you. Gene has a complicated envy and unhealthy competition with Finny, which causes him to have an obsession with him. Throughout the book, Gene grows more and more paranoid about the fact that Finny is always flawless and charming. After somewhat intentionally hurting Finny at the tree, Gene goes into a "numbness" (Knowles 62), and decides to put on his clothing. "I had no idea why this gave me such intense relief, but it seemed, standing there in Finny's triumphant shirt, that I would never stumble through the confusions of my own character again." (Knowles 62). Here, Gene finds a certain kind of comfort. He finds this comfort because he thinks he has found his place in the world. Before, he was just a wanderer, always in Finny's shadow, always changing his mind. Now, Gene has found that his "purpose from the first" (Knowles 85) was to be a part of Finny. Gene thought of Finny as having "chosen" his "for his best friend." (Knowles 29). Now that he feels like the next "Finny", he understands why Finny chose him in the first place.
ReplyDeleteKnowles uses the words 'a part of' to show that Gene doesn't want to replace Finny, he wants to exists as a part of him. The freedom he explains is the freedom of no longer striving to be better than Finny, but to be a part of him. Throughout the book, Gene has been competing with Finny and trying to be better than him at sports, among other things. Now that Finny can no longer do sports, Gene doesn't want to either. This could be because he feels that being better than Finny now is unfair, or that he will never live up to Finny's legacy in sports. Gene is trying to escape Finny, to avoid coming to terms with what he did. No matter what he does, he is reminded of Finny. Gene tells himself that if Finny cannot do sports he shouldn't either. Finny thinks that Gene should do sports since he can't. Gene feels responsible for what happened to Finny, but he is trying to run away from it at the same time. In this chapter Finny has accepted what Gene did more than Gene accepts it. After Finny's injury, he went from being Gene's rival, to being his other half. This could be because of Gene's guilt.
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