Assignment #5: Why does Quackenbush use the word “maimed”? Explore the significance and connotation (Gillian)

In this reading, Quackenbush uses the word maimed to scare Gene, but this word signifies to Gene Finny and his condition. Gene and Quackenbush get into a heated argument about if Gene is too old to be starting as the team manager. Gene quickly defends himself and Quackenbush calls him “maimed” to scare Gene and to tell him that he is going to hurt him. He narrates, “it was almost as though I were maimed. Then the realization that there was someone who was flashed over me” (Knowles 79).  This quote shows how the word triggered his memory of Finny. The word has a negative connotation, which is used to portray the negativity and guilt that Gene feels about Finny’s condition. Gene then continues to fight Quackenbush, when he narrated that he was fighting for Finny. He says, “I fought that battle, that first skirmish of a long campaign, for Finny” (Knowles 79). Gene explains that the reason that he fought was to defend Finny, and he later confirms this more specifically. Though Gene meant for the battle between him and Quackenbush to be for Finny, after the fight he comes to a realization. He narrates, “But it didn’t feel exactly as though I had done it for Phineas. It felt as though I had done it for myself” (Knowles 80). Gene shows that though he tried to fight for Finny, it still felt as though he had done it for himself and not for his friend. This could be due to the jealousy that he used to have for Finny, which ended up hurting both of them, and him feeling like he had to do it to be better than Finny. When Quackenbush uses the word “maimed,” it affects Gene by forcing him to think of Finny, making him feel like he is fighting for him, but he ends up still feeling like he fought for himself.