Finny’s death did not surprise me, and it is a logical climax because everything is going to change after Finny’s death. Finny’s death did not surprise me because it seemed almost like a death you could expect. In many books, the characters readers like the most are often killed off, and this was just the case. I also expected Finny’s death after his return because Finny and Gene’s relationship after the accident was almost too good to be true. Finny and Gene were so close even after Gene tried to kill him that, “Phineas had thought of me as an extension of himself,”(Knowles 180). This is a logical climax. A climax is the turning point of a story where it reaches its point of highest tension and drama. This is where this happens because before the fall Finny’s greatest secret gets exposed to the person he did it to who was Gene, and then Finny dies which changes almost everything. So, this is a logical climax because everything changes because of this event. Everything will change because Finny was who Gene looked up to. Even though they had a very unhealthy relationship with each other, their worlds basically revolved around each other. Gene’s world is going to completely shift, especially since he will probably have to go to war soon so he literally is losing everything he has. At the end of the chapter it says, I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral,” (Knowles 194). Gene feels this way because now that Finny’s gone most of his problems and happiness and other emotions are gone with him. Along with the guilt of knowing what he did to him in the past and that he caused Finny's second fall even though he didn't physically do anything to him that time. After the logical climax where Finny dies, Gene’s entire world is going to change.
I definitely agree with Anna that Finny's death was expected, and I also think that it was a logical climax. I think that all throughout the novel Knowles was hinting at something like this. The whole book is about two main topics: war/manhood and friendships/rivalry. These two ideas shaped the outcome of the story, and in particular we see how much the experiences of Gene and Finny's friendship have left a mark, so it seems logical that the climax could revolve around their relationship. Knowles helps us understand the climax by leading us up to it with the help of a great deal of foreshadowing. Even in the very beginning of the book (which was set after Gene graduates) there are hints at Finny's death. The biggest hint was when Gene is walking around Devon, and enters the First Academy Building. Here, he notices the stair case and thinks, "although they were old stairs, the worn moons in the middle of each step were not very deep. The marble must be unusually hard," (Knowles 11). The stairs trigger a memory of Finny's death in Gene's mind, and because they were what killed him, the marble material, like a memory, stands out, hard and fresh in Gene's mind. Overall I think that there is a lot of events leading up to Finny's death which makes it seem like the logical climax.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Dylan and Anna that Finny's death is a logical climax for the novel. There was always an underlying darkness and rivalry between Finny and Gene that kept the reader on their heals. Every book starts off with setting description, getting to know the characters, and understanding what it is your about to read. Gene's insecurities and often jealousy of Finny is what lead to the first big incident, when Gene jounces the limb. Like this impulse action, Gene impulsively decides to enlist in the war later on in the novel. He says doing this would free him from everything. The envy, the guilt, the pain and insecurities would all be gone if he had enlisted in the war. He also foreshadows Finny's death when he says, "But I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me; there was always something deadly lurking in anything I wanted, anything I loved" (101). This reveals the sly hints that John Knowles puts into the novel leading up to Finny's death. Throughout the book, Knowles drops hints and foreshadows the ultimate climax of the book, Finny's death.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone that Finny's death is expected and a logical climax to the book. However, I am surprised at the way in which Finny dies. Throughout the book, the reader comes to understand Finny's amazing agility and finesse, even as Finny recovered from his broken leg, he still managed to host the winter carnival and be the center of the snowball fight. So I was slightly surprised to know that upon leaving Assembly Hall, Finny's "body fell clumsily down the white marble stairs" (p. 177). Even after the second fall, it seems that once Finny makes it to the infirmary and is in the care of Dr. Stanpole, he will survive and defy the odds of yet another difficult fall. The conversations in the infirmary between Gene and Finny also seem to be a precursor of moving their relationship forward, so to know Finny dies in surgery hours following is a surprise. The manner of death is seemingly a surprise for Dr. Stanpole as well, "It was such a simple, clean break. Anyone could have set it. Of course, I didn't send him to Boston" (p. 193). Although Finny's death was expected, it seemed that his death would have been more dramatic, in an attempt to defy the odds or doing something against the grain of the general student population at Devon.
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