At the end of the chapter, Gene’s fear of Finny trying to sabotage him to be the head of class disappears. Throughout chapter four Gene speculates that all of Finny’s spontaneous activities and adventures are to prevent Gene from studying and becoming the head of their class. He thinks that Finny has a chance of being the head of the class because of his athletic abilities and that he (Gene) can only balance himself out with Finny through his academic abilities. When Finny asks if Gene wants to join him in watching Leper jump from the tree Gene decided to confront Finny about if he is trying to sabotage him. After Gene confronts Finny and realizes he never tried to hurt Gene’s academics he thinks“He had never been jealous of me for a second… I was not of the same quality as he” (Knowles 59). He realized that he and Finny were never in the same race and that instead, he was above Finny the whole time. Once Gene makes the connection that Finny was never against him he decides to go with him to the tree. Once they get there Finny decides that they should jump from the tree together. When they jump from the tree Finny doesn’t land very smoothly and this makes Gene feel better as this further proves how he thinks that he is better than Finny and that Gene has nothing to worry about.
Is there something that Gene fears more? What do you think makes Gene think so negatively of Finny?
I agree and disagree with Alisa. I do think that Gene notices that he and Finny were never int he same race, however I do not think that Gene had the realization that he was ever above Finny, but instead that Finny was always so far ahead of him that there was no point in even comparing the two of them. When Gene is having this realization, he narrates "I was not of the same quality as he"(Knowles 59). This quote shows that not even Gene thinks that he is good enough to compete with Finny. Gene though that since he was better in academics than Finny, that he was even with him, but both us and him notice that this is not true. Gene's academics did not intimidate Finny and that angered Gene and is what caused him to jostle the branch.
ReplyDeleteI agree, and think that Gene fears his own jealousy of Finny the most. As you said Gene recognized that he and Finny were never rivals, and that “[he] was not of the same quality as [Finny]” (Knowles, 59). Gene knows that he can not compete with Finny and his whole rivalry was like a lie to himself. Gene thinks negatively of Finny as a result of his jealousy and fear. I think that Finny’s failure in jumping safety off the tree gives Gene the strength not to fear the jump, because he feels better than Finny and has no fear as a result.
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