The irony in Gene and Finny’s discussion on page 155 of A Separate Peace is that Gene tells Finny not to break his leg again, however, it was Gene’s fault in the first place. Earlier in the book, Gene and Finny are up in the tree by the river and Finny offers that he and Gene do a double jump together off the tree into the river. However, once on the limb, Gene purposely “jounced the limb. {and} Finny, his balance gone… tumbled sideways… and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud,” (Knowles 60). Following this event, it is discovered that the fall caused Finny to break his leg. Later, once Finny is back at school from recovering for his leg, Gene and him are talking after a large snowball fight; Gene is worried whether Finny’s leg will be okay, reminding Finny, “Christ, don’t break it again!” (Knowles 155). The irony here is that Gene makes the sentence accusatory, that it was Finny’s fault his leg is broken, however that is not the case as Finny’s broken leg is all due to Gene.
I completely agree with that there is irony in their dialouge surrounding Finny's leg. Another notable piece of irony on page 155 is when Finny says, " No, of course, I won't break it again"(Knowles 115). His use of "I" in conjunction with breaking his leg alerts the reader once more to the lie surrounding the cause of his accident. This later can be traced to the courtroom scene, a turning point in the story.
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