Gene’s fear disappears at the end of the chapter as he realizes what he’s done to Finny. His fear in the moment was jumping off the tree branch into the water with Finny. However, the real fear that Gene feels has to do with his fear that he is a bad person. Gene realizes what that the competition he has been having with Finny is in his head, and feels that he is a bad person for thinking this, and that “[Gene] was not of the same quality as [Finny]” (Knowles 59). When Finny fell off the tree branch and “hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud” (Knowles 60) Gene watches, stunned, noting it as the “first clumsy physical action” (Knowles 60) he had ever seen Finny make. Gene now fully realizes that it was completely his fault, and he did it completely out of jealousy of Finny. Gene now needs to get off the branch and see the damage that he knows he has done, so he jumps off with “every trace of [his] fear forgotten” (Knowles 60). He doesn’t allow himself to be fearful because he is so worried about Finny, witht that feeling completely replacing the jealously he felt earlier. Gene is no longer fearful after Finny falls because he needs to see his friend.
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ReplyDeleteGene greatly cares about his friend Finny so he doesn't fear jumping at that moment. After Gene saw Finny hit the ground, "with unthinking sureness [he moves] out on the limb and jumps into the river" (Knowles 60). This situation connects to what happened on the tree because Gene shook the branch, and perhaps his guilt plays a factor in his "unthinking sureness" to jump in the water.
ReplyDeleteGene's "fear" disappears at the end of the chapter because Finny fell. It has been made very clear throughout the chapters that have been read that Gene is extremely jealous of Finny and how he always gets away with everything. Although he still greatly cares about Finny, seeing him fall makes Gene happy in an odd way, like he has achieved something that Finny has not, staying on the tree. On page 60, Gene states, "It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make." (Knowles 60). Gene had stayed on the tree branch, while Finny fell, and this makes Gene feel like he is superior to Finny making his fears go away, even just for a second.
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