Assignment #12: What does Gene mean when he says “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war end before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (204). Who/what is his enemy? Why does he contradict himself there? What was his war? (Jack)

Throughout Gene’s time at Devon, he fights a private war against his best friend, Phineas. From the beginning of the novel to the end, there has always been the overarching theme of war. Although Gene never goes to the war, he impulsively creates a war between himself and his best friend at Devon. By doing this, he expresses the main idea of the book. Which is, that we “pit ourselves” against others to make enemies and grow up.  When Gene says that war is, “The result of something ignorant in the human heart,” (201) he is talking about the part of us that makes us develop our own enemies. When he does this, he builds hatred and resentment against Finny. In chapter 7, Gene says he is going to enlist in the war with Brinker. This idea is so appealing to him because it poses the chance for him to escape the war he is fighting against Finny. He says, “There was always something deadly lurking in anything I wanted, anything I loved. And if it wasn’t their, as for example with Phineas, I put it there myself” (101). This shows how Gene made Finny into an enemy and fought a deadly war against his longtime best friend, that lead to his death.