Sunday, April 28, 2019
Assignment #3; question 2: Re-read the last paragraph on page 48 (end of chapter 3). What happens here? Why is important? Why doesn’t Gene respond? What do you think holds him back? What is the “truth” he refers to at the very end of the quote? (Emma).
The significance of the last paragraph on page 48 is Gene's truth of not seeing Finny as his best friend, but always as his rival. Throughout the book, we see that Gene is constantly comparing himself and his accomplishments to Finny. Gene has always had a fascination with Finny, from the way he can talk his way out of any situation to his ability to effortlessly play sports. Gene has always had a critical curiosity about his “best friend”. In chapter 4, Gene begins clearing speaking of his rivalry with Finny which we can later see is one-sided, “when everything was thrown into the scales they would, in the end, tilt definitely towards me” (Knowles 55). Gene constantly makes excuses for himself and turns Finny into a villain so he can have any feeling of self-worth. Gene has very low confidence and depends on Finny to make himself feel more accomplished. Even after Gene is given a true look into Finny’s blind innocents of not understanding, Gene finds a way to make himself feel worse, “there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he” (Knowles 59). Gene has always built a sense of competition against Finny which is why he could not bring himself to say that Finny was his best friend, because, in the end, Gene always knew that it would be more of a rivalry in his mind than a friendship.
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I completely agree with this jealousy aspect between Gene and Finny. I think that Finny is seen as this prodigy that is good at everything through Gene's eyes. I think Gene had to tell himself that he was happy to have Finny as a best friend but deep inside he knows that he wants what Finny and this fake friendship masked this desire to be him.
ReplyDeleteI agree, they way Gene stalls at the end of page 48 is a huge indication that he doesn't see their relationship as a friendship, but more as a rivalry. Adding on to your point I think that Gene realizes later that he is hurting their relationship more than helping it. Although it may seem that Gene is just the sidekick, it is clear to see that he doesn’t just want to be Finny’s sidekick. Just when Gene thinks he busted Finny’s plan you hear him talk about how great a student he is, and how he can beat Finny. The reader can see this when Gene says, “Now I became not just good but exceptional, with Chet Douglass my only rival in sight” (Knowles 54). You can tell in this reading that Gene is taking it was too seriously, and that again he doesn't see his relationship with Finny as friendly but more like a challenge to exceed him.
ReplyDeleteI agree, in the last paragraph of page 48, Finny tells Gene that he considers him to be his best friend, and Gene holds back from reciprocating the gesture because of his inherent jealousy of Finny’s seemingly effortless accomplishments. Gene discovers his subconscious lurking jealousy of his friend when he decides to go for the top spot in their class and realizing that they “would be even” (Knowles 52), was this driving motivation for Gene. When Gene convinced himself that Finny would be incredibly jealous of his top marks in all classes, he “became quite a good student after that” (Knowles 54) because he wanted so badly to make Finny jealous for once in his life. Gene’s jealousy of his best friend causes him to do all kinds of irrational things based on the falsehood that Finny is only showing off to disrupt Gene’s own path to success.
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