When Finny broke the school record for the 100-yard swim, he didn’t report it and didn’t want anybody to find out. Finny and Gene were just fooling around in the pool one day and Finny decided to try breaking the school record and was able to. When he broke the record, Gene narrates, “I had experienced a feeling that can also be described in one word-shock”(Knowles 45). Whether or not Gene wants to admit it, he is slightly (if not really) jealous of his best friend for having a natural talent in a sport that he has never even tried. This doesn’t mean that Gene isn’t proud of his friend, it just means that he can’t help but sometimes wanting to be like him. Gene isn’t good at sports like Finny is, and human beings tend to want what they don’t have. Finny is slightly embarrassed by having beat the record with close to no effort and zero practice and this is why he didn’t want anybody to find out. Finny is proud and embarrassed by his natural gift in sports.
I agree with the writer's thoughts, but I don't think that Finny is embarrassed about breaking the record. I think that Finny’s idea of sports is pushing himself for his own sake, and not for other’s. He doesn’t want the approval of authorities and doesn’t need to keep score, which is different from Gene’s views. When Finny broke the record Gene was amazed and stated: “To keep silent about this amazing happening deepened the shock for me.” (Knowles 45) I think that this confuses Gene and makes him worry about his friendship with Finny because he believes that most relationships at Devon are based on rivalries, and that is not what Finny cares about. He only cares about challenging himself.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Grace about Finny’s idea of sports as a whole. Throughout the book Gene thinks of everything as a competition and that a real accomplishment has to be recognized by people in authority. Finny is more focused on improving himself rather than what others think of him. This is partially because Finny is confident in himself and has a stable self-image. Gene constantly relies on others to give him self worth which is why it is so confusing for Gene as to why Finny doesn’t want to share his accomplishment, “his accomplishment took root in my mind and grew rapidly in the darkness” (Knowles 44). Gene has always had a way to put everything into a competition. But this one feat he could not put into the form of competition because Finny had already won, but didn’t care to show it. This confuses Gene even more and forces him to think of things in a different light.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sophia, but I think Finny doesn't want people to know because he doesn't want people to know he's good at a sport like swimming. Finny seemed as if he thought swimming was a "dumb" sport or that it was kind of boring or "nerdy" to be good at swimming. After Finny and Gene argue about Gene not telling anybody Finny says after their long period of silence, "Swimming in pools is screwy anyways. The only real swimming is in the ocean"(Knowles 45). Many boys only see football, basketball, baseball, or soccer as cool tough sports. But when it comes to other sports such as swimming they see these sports as weak or boring, since it's not a physical sport. Finny is seen as a huge athletic person who does aggressive contact activities, and he probably didn't want people to think he was weak. Finny probably secretly enjoys swimming which explains why he brought Gene to the beach and he spent hours just playing on the shore and in the sand. So Finny was embarrassed of his skill of swimming because it's seen as a weak sport.
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