Is Finny's fall, and ultimately his death, something you can blame on Gene? Why or why not? If he is not to blame, then who is? - Rahul

Finny’s fall and death can be blamed completely on Gene. Some may argue that Brinker agitated him and that led him to rush out of the hall. Some may argue that the facts that Leper provided pushed Finny past his boundaries because he showed his hatred of the facts and how Brinker was trying to collect them so vigorously. “ ‘You get all your facts!’ I had never seen Finny crying before” (Knowles 177). However what led to this event and made everything spiral out of control was when Gene “jounced the limb” (Knowles 60). It is always the little things that add up to create the bigger things in life.

It could be said by some, that you can’t trace Finny’s death back so far however I think Gene is 100 percent responsible. His competitive nature and “ jounce” made Finny lose his leg mobility. When Gene and Finny were walking to the gymnasium together in the early part of the winter, Gene thinks to himself, “Phineas had moved in a continuous flowing balance. Obviously the accident this impaired Finny’s coordination and balance, and so therefore he must have had a harder time getting down the stairs. He hobbled now among the patches of ice (Knowles 111).  Secondly this lead to several rumors flying around. One can’t blame Brinker for wanting to clear things up. It may have been an awful way to do so, but that is just how Brinker is. Brinker means well however he carries out his ideas in an ill manor. Leper was just doing as he was told. He never wanted to harm anyone. It was Gene’s actions which made everything spiral out of control and eventually Phineas died because of Gene’s stupidity and jealousy