Explain the significance of the last paragraph: "I did not cry then or ever about Finny. I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family's strait-laced burial ground outside of Boston. I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case." (Rebecca)

          Gene feels that he is a part of Finny, and when finny dies, Gene feels a part of himself dies with him. After Finny falls out of the tree, Gene feels like his purpose is to be the part of Finny that he lost when he got injured. “Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,” and 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 a part of Phineas." (Knowles 85) In A Separate Peace, Gene goes from being envious of Finny to being a part of him.
          Gene took away a bit of Finny in the accident, now Gene is repaying Finny by being that part and supporting him. Knowles shows that Finny has forgiven Gene through his language and tone. "'Well there's Finny here.' 'Yes,' agreed Phineas in his deepest and most musical tone, 'there's me.'"
           Finny would rather move on and forget about the accident than settle what happened like Brinker wants. When Brinker brings up the accident 'trial' Finny doesn't want to talk about it so he storms out. Finny re-injures himself, right when he is recovering, which undoes all the bonding and forgiving that happened between him and Gene. Brinker injures Finny emotionally and physically by bringing up the past. Gene doesn't cry at Finny's funeral because Finny dies with all their memories and a part of Gene. Finny was never one to feel sorry for himself, so he would never cry at his own funeral. Gene felt that he was a part of Finny so he shouldn't cry at 'his own funeral' either. Knowles uses the words "you do not cry in that case" to sound like one of Finny's 'Commandments'. Gene's language starts to sound like Finny's because they have bonded and become similar to each other. Gene envied Finny's lifestyle, so he made his own 'Commandments' to live by just like Finny. Gene lost a part of himself when Finny dies, just like Finny lost a part of himself when he fell out of that tree.