Guilt is a feeling someone gets after doing something wrong, intentionally or accidentally. Depending on how conscious of a person you are, it will/can happen many times throughout your life. As Finny and Gene are about to jump off the tree together, attempting a "double jump", Gene steps onto the branch causing Finny to lose his balance, fall, and shatter his leg. Gene states, " 'I burst out crying into my hands; I cried for Phineas and for myself..." (Knowles 64), showing that while he is worried for Finny's safety, he knows what happened was his fault. People talk about what happened for several days, and no one blames Gene for anything, and although he does feel guilty for some time, he gets over it. The text states, "That night I slept easily.... and I was confronted with myself and what I had done to Finny." (Knowles 62). Gene changes how he feels about what he did by "confronting" himself, and thinks that since he entered that mindset, his fault is gone and should move on. Although to many this wouldn't be right, Gene apparently finds it possible to move on guilt free and sleep easily at night.
Will Gene confess what he did to Finny? Should Finny forgive him? How will Finny view Gene if he eventually confesses?
I agree with Julio that it is unusually easy for Gene to move on after this incident. Although he doesn’t confess at first, he goes and visits Finny later in the summer to tell him the truth about how the accident was caused. I think this is because he could not bear having to ruin his best friend’s life, especially after how Finny respected him so much. Finny’s reaction wasn’t very unexpected, but I thought he would be a little more disappointed at Gene. Do you think that they will eventually get over this? How will this affect their friendship?
ReplyDeleteI agree, it does seem eerily strange that Gene could just breeze past such a traumatic and horrifying event. He doesn't even seem fazed by the whole situation until a couple of pages later. Gene does clearly feel some guilt for what he's done, though. Even if it is a whole couple of months after the incident, he does confront Finny about it. Finny is obviously not happy about it at all, and it is the first time we see him break his usual joking and happy character. Gene does respond with a little bit of aggressiveness, but the whole interaction is finished pretty quickly, which is very surprising to say the least. Is Finny going to forgive Gene? Does Finny even believe Gene? What will happen when Finny comes back to Devon and they need to live together?
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with Julio here, as Gene seemed to get over his guilt relatively quickly considering what he had done. To add on, I would also note that Gene seemed more concerned about himself than he was about Finny during this incident. Instead of thinking along the lines of, "I wonder if Finny will be okay. I need to apologize as soon as I can!" he was thinking, "Oh no, what will Finny think of me when I tell him what happened? I hope this doesn't effect our friendship!". Even though his friend was badly injured, Gene seemed to care more about how it affected himself rather than Finny. Another strange action that Gene took was that he was surprisingly aggressive while talking to Finny in the infirmary. When Finny tried to ask him a question about what happened, Gene defensively shot back at him, exclaiming that Finny may have been trying to "drag him down too". After what happened last chapter, I thought that Gene would be worried sick about his best friend, but I guess he was more concerned about himself. Do you think Gene will become less self-centered through this incident? What will happen when they need to live together again?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Julio that it was fairly odd how easily Gene moved on after this event. For myself it's hard to see how to move on from something like this so quickly. Causing serious injury off of something I did would cause a lot of guilt for me that I would have to confess right away because I wouldn't be able to keep that weight on my shoulders. Like the Graham has said, Gene was concerned about Finny, but maybe a little more concerned about himself and their friendship. I definitely don't think Finny getting better and recovering was one of the things Gene was prioritizing. " I couldn't go on hearing about it much longer. If anyone had been suspicious of me, I might have developed some strength to defend myself. But there was nothing"(62). This is just an example of how Gene is worrying about if he is going to be accused or get in trouble. It just shows hows his concern is really on himself and how he is going to do.
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