Thursday, April 26, 2018
(40-60) What is the significance of the incident at the swimming pool? What does the reveal about Finny and Gene and what does it add to our understanding of their relationship? (Anna)
The significance of the swimming pool incidence is that it shows Gene is trying to compete with Finny, but Finny is not trying to compete with Gene or outshine him. After Finny breaks the record, Gene is supportive and wants him to get an official timekeeper to make his record official, but Finny is not interested in that and is very modest about the situation. It adds understanding to their relationship by showing the different characteristics and values each friend has, Finny being modest and Gene being the jealous type. This situation also made Gene more jealous Finny, which was the opposite reaction Finny wanted him to have. This is shown in the text when it says, “‘You’re too good to be true’ I said after a while. He glanced at me, and then said, ‘Thanks a lot,’ in a somewhat expressionless voice,”(Knowles 44). This shows that Finny didn’t want to be rubbing his talents in Gene’s face when he did his impressive swimming feat. But, it still made Gene jealous. Gene and Finny have a relationship where one is not trying to purposefully conceitedly display his talents, but the other still sees him as everything he wants to be and is jealous.
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Anna's examples of Gene's jealousy and Finny's talents are solid. They give a revealing explanation of what is happening in their relationship: Gene is jealous of all that Finny has accomplished and who he is. The only thing missing in this is the fact that Finny is also jealous of Gene's intelligence and his grades in school. At first, Gene just wants to be even with Finny. He shows this when he says that he wants to be the head of the class because "...then we'd both come out on top, we would be even, that was all. We would be even." (Knowles, 52). Gene finally realizes that he "and Phineas are already even" (Knowles, 53). This is because they are both jealous of each other and want to deliberately hurt each other to make themselves look better.
ReplyDeleteThe significance of the swimming pool incident highlights the envious side of Gene, and shows the war Gene is in. A while after the swimming pool incident Gene is contemplating his rivalry with Finny. He thinks to himself, " the way I believed that you're-my-best-friend blabber ... sure, he wanted to share everything with me, specifically his possession of D's in every subject," (53). Gene is all of a sudden extremely conflicted, because he thinks that his and Finny's friendship is a lie. He believes they are rivals. Inside Gene's mind he is in a war with Finny. I feel that Knowles creates this minor war to show the contrast to WW2, which is occurring at the time. Gene drives himself into a dark place in which every action he makes has only one purpose; to one up the enemy. Without realizing it, Gene is also in a war with himself. He cannot figure out who his friends are, or who he wants to be (Finny's enemy or not).
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anna that Gene is most definitely jealous of Finny, while Finny seems to be only supportive. While Finny is extremely talented in all things sports, he knows he falls below average when it comes to academics, but still supports Gene through his studying. Gene tells Finny that if Gene should study, then Finny should too, to which Finny replies “Listen, I could study forever and I’d never break C. But it’s different for you, you’re good. You really are,” (Knowles 58). Finny acknowledges that Gene is superior to him in academics but this doesn’t make him jealous, only supportive.
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