Differences Between Gene Forester And Phineas

A Separate Piece

Gene Forester and Phineas were typical teenagers just like all of us, trying distinguish themselves from the herd. The only difference between them and us is that they try to resolve it in a much more radical way of being Such as The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. Gene was always the best in his class academically, together with Chett Douglas. Throughout the story he changed a lot in some aspects such as his way of thinking, transformed pleasure into deception and pain, his perception of his relationship with Finny and the most important of them all, he discovered the truth.

At the beginning of the story Gene was completely focused in his academics and didn’t care so much for girls and sports. Finny was the

main game-changer in the story. Gene was never the same after that first jump. They were dumping classes, going to the beach, basically doing everything they weren’t supposed to. Gene always watched Finny swimming and breaking the school’s record and not telling it to anybody. Finny was so popular in the school that he got to invent a game called blitzball. "Interestingly, in playing blitzball, there are no teams; everyone is the enemy. This is significant when placing the game in relation to Finny, who feels he must defeat everyone. Thus, there is a military aura to Finny's game"(Knowles 31).After hanging out so much with Finny he started to acquire his personality; including interests and sport admiration and practice.

One of the most shocking parts of the story was when Gene intentionally tripped Phineas; therefore, causing him to fall and not be able to practice sports anymore; which is the thing he most loved for the rest of his life.

As mentioned previously, Gene felt a satisfactory and tremendous well being after Finny’s fall, which later on evolved into tremendous self-rage and regret. This feeling mutation occurred because Finny was also better than him in everything (except academics) and was also much more popular."He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he. I couldn’t stand this. . . . Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud. It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear of this forgotten."(Knowles 52) In my opinion, Gene didn’t entirely feel regret after tripping him over and making him unable to practice sports again. Gene’s heart was feeling bad for having done that because, although it didn’t look like, he actually liked Finny; however, his brain felt relieved for

not having to dispute anything with anybody anymore.

Gene always thought that his relationship with Finny was some kind of rivalry to see who was the best overall; Gene in his academics and Finny in his gifted sports talents.

When Finny got him out of his study-time to jump-off the tree he thought that he was being treacherous and sly to take a step-forward on their interior “battle”."What was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this? Was he getting some kind of hold over me?" (Knowles 67). Later on in the story they were lying down at the beach while dumping classes and Finny announced to Gene that he was his best friend and that he really liked him. At that point, Gene was beginning to realize that there was no war between them but yes an alliance, however his mind refused to accept this hypothesis. At the point that him and Finny were going to jump off the tree together he was still thinking that there was a war between them and the Finny was always better than him; for example, when Finny used the school uniform tie as a belt and he got away with it because in his mind finny was loved by all and he was hated. Moments after Finny “fell” from the tree he felt a satisfactory and relieving feeling; however, when these moments passes he deeply regretted his action and couldn’t make up for it. The next minutes or so he finally realized that there was no rivalry between the both of them but yes, love. "I threw my hip against his, catching him by surprise, and he was instantly down,

definitely pleased. This was why he liked me so much. When I jumped on top of him, my knees on his chest, he couldn't ask for anything better. We struggled in some equality for a while, and then when we were sure we were too late for dinner, we broke off"(Knowles 46).

Gene was just another ingenious high school kid that didn’t know much about the war that was going on featuring the Nazis and Adolf Hitler. As any other adolescent transferring into the adult phase Gene believed everything he heard from his friends, which was an error this time. Phineas believed that the war was only an abstract idea thought out by fat and old men just to make them afraid of doing impetuous things. Lepper was Gene’s friend and was the first one of the boys to enlist in the army. Gene did not enlist because he thought that Finny didn’t want him to. "To enlist. To slam the door impulsively on the past, to shed everything down to my last bit of clothing, to break the pattern of my life....The war would be deadly all right. But I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me." (Knowles 93). Gene only acknowledged that there was actually a war when one of his friends, Lepper deserted and called him up for an urgent meeting near Gene's old home. Gene’s knowledge immensely increased throughout the book.

After all, Gene changed a lot throughout the novel such as his way of thinking, transforming happiness into terror, learning more about his relationship with Finny and finally discovering the truth about the war and what he felt for Finny. Gene was a whole different person when he returned to Devon. He couldn’t believe he had done all those different sorts of things when they were younger. Overall, Gene left Devon as a boy and returned as a man.