Assignment 11, question #3: Explain what Gene means when he says, "Phineas, you wouldn't be any good in the war, even if nothing had happened to your leg." Do you think this is true? Why? (Emma).

Gene tells Finny he “wouldn’t be any good in the war” even without his injury to make him feel better about his inability to fight. Since the first accident, Finny has been bitter about his injury and his inability to help in combat. He masks this hatred for his injury and it does not rise again until his second fall. When Finny begins ranting to Gene about his injury taking away his ability to go to war, Gene lies to Finny and says even without his injured leg he would be bad in the war. Gene says this to Finny to protect him from always resenting his injury and to help Finny make peace with his inability to fight. After Gene tells Finny about how much of a mess he would make out of the war Finny begins crying, “he was crying but trying to control himself. ‘It was just some kind of blind impulse you had in the tree there, you didn’t know what you were doing” (Knowles 191). Finny can see hard Gene is trying to make up for everything he took away from Finny the night in the tree. Finny and Gene hadn’t even talked about the incident because it was plainly too painful for both of them to relive that night. After Finny sees how hard Gene is trying to make up for his mistake, he finally heals and makes peace with Gene.