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Hallucinations (Related to Leper becoming delusional)

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"For if Leper was psycho it was the army which had done it to him, and I and all of us were on the brink of the army. 'You make me sick, you and your damn army words. 'They were going to give me, he was almost laughing, everywhere but in his eyes which continued to oppose all he said.." (Knowles 144).

This shows Leper at first wanted to be in the army and succeeded in making a name for himself, but the army drove him to insanity. Leper began to hallucinate and had trouble focusing on everything. The status he believed he belonged in ended up being a terrible mistake. His identity again changes and he is known by the school boys as crazy. He was also about to get a section eight discharge or screwed for life as Leper calls it.

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"Then a second realization broke as clearly and bleakly as dawn at the beach. Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies. That explained blitzball, that explained the nightly meetings of the Super Suicide Society, that explained his insistence that I share all his diversions. The way I believed that you're-my-best-friend blabber" (Knowles 53)!

Even though it wasn't Finny's intention, Gene starts assuming all these awful things about Phineas, thinking he is out to get him and that they are in competition. He starts getting insecure and jealous enough to accuse his best friend of such things. Finny though, sees Gene as his best friend and doesn't believe it when he tells him he did something bad to him. Gene listens to any idea Finny suggests like going to a far away beach or jumping out of a tree into water. They are both very close and are a part of each other, but Gene starts to become envious.

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"... Phineas was shocked at the idea of my leaving. In some way he needed me. He needed me. I was the least trustworthy person he had ever met. I knew that; he knew or should know that too. I had even told him. I had told him. But there was mistaking the shield of remoteness in his face and voice. He wanted me around. The war then passes away from me, and dreams of enlistment and escape and a clean start lose their meaning for me" (Knowles 108).

This further proves the idea that Finny and Gene need and are a part of one another. They have a really deep bond and would do a lot for each other. The author even emphasizes the conclusion that they need the other by Gene repeating it twice. Though they may go through many fights and obstacles, they truly care on the inside. After Finny seemed like he wanted him to stay, Gene started to lose interest and struggled to find the meaning of war for himself.

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"Leper sprang up all over the world at the core of every Allied success. We talked about Leper's stand at Stalingrad, Leper on the Burma Road, Leper's convoy to Archangel..." (Knowles 126).

Leper becomes famous and talked about among almost all of the boys in school. Leper thought that he belonged in the war, and he said that he was almost glad it came along. His identity changes from an unknown cowardly schoolboy to widely known. He was really passionate about it and wanted to be one of the ski troopers. When he left, he said something about how everything has to evolve or else it perishes.

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" 'After all, there's a war on. It's not much of a sacrifice, when you think of people starving and being bombed and all the other things.' My unselfishness was responding properly to the influences of 1942. In these past months Phineas and I had grown apart on this; I felt a certain disapproval of him for grumbling about a lost luxury, with a war on" (Knowles 104).

After Gene gets the luxury of having a maid taken away, he stays grateful for what he has, and he didn't complain about it, even if his best friend Phineas did. Normal teenagers would feel a bit upset, but Gene seems to have matured. He even says how it's not much of a sacrifice especially when many others have it worse, which is very true. He doesn't seem as immature as he did in the beginning of the book and reads could assume that the war has changed his mind about things. Making Gene less innocent and more grown.

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"The sky is an empty hopeless gray and gives the impression that this is its eternal shade. Winter's occupation seems to have conquered, overrun and destroyed everything, so that now there is no longer any resistance movement left in nature; all the juices are dead, every sprig of vitality snapped, and now winter itself, an old, corrupt, tired conqueror, loosens its grip on the desolation, recedes a little, grows careless in its watch..." (Knowles 128).

Gene sees the world now as a dark, empty, place without hope. He uses a variety of figurative language to represent how he starts to view things. Gene believes the late winter is depressing and doesn't understand why Finny doesn't think the same. He states that Finny sees all weather as simply delightful. This shows that how you perceive things depends on your mindset. If it was stated in the book that Phineas has more of an innocent, optimistic way of life, then Gene on the other hand would definitely have a bit more pessimistic, less innocent, way of thinking, but would have more logic in his beliefs. He also uses personification to emphasize the idea that winter is gloomy and hollow.

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"All pleasurable things, all travel and sports and entertainment and good food and fine clothes, are in the very shortest supply, always were and always will be. There are just tiny fragments of pleasure and luxury in the world, and there is something unpatriotic about enjoying them. All foreign lands are inaccessible except to servicemen; they are vague, distant and sealed off as though behind a curtain of plastic" (Knowles 41).

Even in the first few chapters of the book Gene shows awareness of what is available and things that are not. He has a bit of a depressing view on life and is bold enough to make the claim that luxuries and pleasures in the world will always be temporary and in small amounts. Later on in the book Phineas makes a claim that the fat rich men take and enjoy the good things in the world, while the lesser people get little or none. This represents a social conflict between a class of people in higher positions versus a class of people in lower positions. When the lower do more, they obtain less, the higher do less, yet the higher get to have more.

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"They were not much older than we were and although probably just recruits, they gave the impression of being an elite as they were carried past our drab ranks. They seemed to be having a wonderful time, their uniforms looked new and good; they were clean and energetic; they were going places. After they had gone we laborers looked rather emptily across the newly cleared rails at each other..." (Knowles 97).

There is a comparison between the laborers and the young troops. The young men seem happy, honorable, and they also give off the impression that they are important, while the laborers seem worn out and like they are nobodies. Gene even calls the other and himself a part of the drab ranks. Readers could also assume that the laborers feel kinda lowly and useful from Gene saying that they looked at each other rather emptily. It's clear there is a social conflict between these two classes, one seen as more important, higher, and clean, the other not as useful, lower and dirty.

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"Sixteen is the key and crucial and natural age for a human being to be, and people of all other ages are ranged in an orderly manner ahead of and behind you as a harmonious setting for the sixteen-year-olds of this world. When you are sixteen, adults are slightly impressed and almost intimidated by you. This is a puzzle, finally solved by the realization that they foresee your military future, fighting for them" (Knowles 41).

Gene emphasizes the importance of the age of sixteen by telling the viewers how people see you and what you will end up doing. Sixteen is viewed as the age where you mature and finally become a full man or woman. You reach a year of great importance, so older people are sometimes delighted or a little afraid of you too, as stated in this page. They feel this way because they imagine you are batting for the country and the people in it. Sixteen is the coming of age when you change, mature, and shape yourself into who you truly want to become.

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"Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud" (Knowles 60).

This huge event sets off all the other events in the book. Gene makes the limb of the tree bounce, causing Finny to lose his balance, fall, and break his leg. This one action set off a chain of things and was the whole reason for Finny's death and so much more. One other thing it helped develop and change was Gene's mindset. Gene ages, not physically, but mentally. Gene after this and some other events realizes his faults and becomes a bit more disciplined and thoughtful. And after Finny's death, he ends up being even more matured and different from the beginning of the book.

This was Gene's not physical, but mental coming of age, changing his thoughts, motivation, and maturity.

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Text to Text Connection: Running away from your problems and not accepting hurtful events to avoid pain, can in the end make it worse. Finny always made himself believe something else so he could stay innocent and optimistic and also so he could avoid the truth and his negative feelings.

Novel:

"Why do you think I kept saying there wasn’t any war all winter? I was going to keep on saying it until two seconds after I got a letter from Ottawa or Chungking or some place saying, ‘Yes you can enlist with us" (Knowles 190).

Article: "...Finny is a sensitive person, and he does everything he can to hide things from himself, so he doesn’t end up getting hurt. One of these things is the war. WWII is the center of everyone’s life at the time, yet Finny is desperate to find a way to avoid uncovering the truth about it."

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Text to Text Connection: I believe Gene wanted to be Finny, like athletic, talented, imaginative, creative, etc. He sees his friend as competition and as an enemy out of jealousy for all of his good traits and skills. He even goes as far as to break his friend's leg, even if it wasn't his intention.

Novel: "I found it. I found a single sustaining thought. The thought was, You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record, but so what? He hated you for getting an A in every course but one last term" (Knowles 53).

Article: "At one point in the novel, Forrester entertains the absurd idea that Finny is deliberately trying to destroy his scholastic success (even though Finny is obviously unconcerned). Forrester’s personal insecurity is such that it drives him toward somehow getting even with Finny, which he eventually does by causing Finny’s fall from the tree."

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Text to Text Connection: Gene thought he needed Finny and was a part of him, the same goes for Phineas. They both rely on each other and truly on the inside care deeply about one another.

Novel: "He needed me. I was the least trustworthy person he had ever met. I knew that; he knew or should know that too. I had even told him. I had told him. But there was mistaking the shield of remoteness in his face and voice. He wanted me around" (Knowles 108).

Article: "The foremost of these themes is codependency, as Finny and Gene’s relationship shifts into codependency after the accident. Gene relies on Finny as emotional support for the guilt he feels over the accident, and Finny relies on Gene for academic help (as Gene is a much better student) and lives vicariously through Gene in athletics since he is no longer able to compete. Their identities become so entangled that Gene describes attending Finny’s funeral as akin to attending his own."