Thursday, May 9, 2019
Assignment #9 What causes Gene to attack Leper? The answer needs to involve a literal and figurative exploration of what occurs here (middle 145). (Eric)
Gene attacks Leper because Gene feels that Leper stepped out of line during their conversation. Prior to when Gene lunged at Leper, Leper was talking about how Gene is “savage underneath” (Knowles 145). Just before Gene goes after Leper, Leper has a monologue about Gene and his recent behavior. He says, “A swell guy, except when the chips were down. You always were a savage underneath. I always knew that only I never admitted it” (Knowles 145). When Leper says this he was building up to what he really wanted to say to Gene all along. Leper says, “like that time you knocked Finny out of the tree… Like that time you crippled him for life” (Knowles 145). When Leper says this it sends Gene springing at him and Gene pushes and kicks Lepers chair over. As shown earlier in the book Finny falling from the tree is a very sensitive topic. Especially when Leper says, “Like that time you crippled him for life” (Knowles 145). When Leper says this it sets off a number of triggers for Gene because Gene knows that it was his fault, and he knows that he is a bad friend. An example of this is when Gene is being tried in the butt room by Brinker and his friends on pages 88 to 102. Earlier in the reading Leper explains how people think he is crazy and how he almost got a section eight discharge, which essentially means that the person being let go is a “psycho”. The Leper in this chapter is a changed leper than the one the readers know from Devon. The quiet Leper that loves nature and is very passive. In conclusion, Gene attacks leper because of the sensitive things he said that hurt Gene.
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I slightly disagree with Eric, I think the reason why Gene attacked Leper is because Leper was right and Gene does not want to hear it. Previously in the book Gene noticed that he finds something ‘deadly’ in everything he loves and this realization frightened him so he tries to put it out of his mind. Leper continuously repeats the word “savage”, to describe Gene, which means very violent and uncontrolled. When Leper continuously says this, it puts Gene on edge and when he finally mentions Finny, Gene snaps and lunges at him. After dinner with Leper’s mother, Gene notices what she’s thinking, “‘...he is a good boy underneath.’ Leper was closer to the truth” (Knowles 146). This connects to the bigger idea of lying to yourself, and I think Gene has been trying to avoid the idea because it is too painful to continue lying to himself. Gene attacks Leper because Leper is a reality check for him, about the terrible person he is and truth of the war. In the end Gene is trying to move forwards and repair he relationship with Finny any way he can and being reminded of what he did to him and the true person he is underneath only reminds him of how their friendship will never be the same.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emma. I think that one of the only ways that Gene knows how to live his life, is through a lie. he doesn't like to hear the truth and that is demonstrated when Finny and Gene never told anyone the full true story about what happened in the tree. The two friends were trying to protect themselves from hearing the truth by not talking about it. When Gene goes to Leper's house, as a way to anger Gene, Leper said, “Like that time you crippled him for life” (Knowles 145). It was after this quote that gene attacked Leper. Gene didn't want to face the truth and he didn't want to accept what he had done to his "best friend".
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