The Butt Room is a place where the students at Devon go to smoke and talk about
what bad things are going on around the school. When Gene and Brinker go down to
the Butt Room, they find multiple people there already smoking and doing things they
wouldn’t be allowed on campus. Also, Gene starts bragging about what he did to Finny,
even though it isn’t true. When Gene and Brinker head down to the dungeon, they act
like Gene is a prisoner and they have captured him to interrogate him for his actions,
“‘Here’s your prisoner, gentlemen,’ announced Brinker, seizing my neck and pushing me
into the Butt Room ahead of him, ‘I’m turning him over to the proper authorities,’”
(Knowles 89). Although they act like they are punishing Gene, they are really just fooling around and want to find out what happened. They do it downstairs in the dungeon because they would most likely get in trouble if they met up and made inappropriate jokes about such a serious matter in front of teachers. The Butt Room is just a place where all the kids go to hang out and do things in secrecy without the teachers knowing. Whether it plays a big role or not throughout the rest of the story is unknown, but it gives the readers an idea of what life was like there.
Do you think that the Butt Room will be important throughout the rest of the book? If yes,
then how so? Do you think that the teachers will find out what the students do in the Butt Room?
I agree with Spiros that the Butt Room is where all the kids at Devon School go to hangout and smoke as Knowles explains. I also do think that the teachers will soon find out what is happening down there. Gene describes students acting "like criminals" (Knowles 88). This significance is very important because the students act perfectly when on the field or in classes, but they get to the Butt room and act completely different. Knowles would also not just bring this room up for no reason. I feel like later in the book there will be more meaning to it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the BuTT Room will be important throughout the rest of the book, but I do believe it will continue to show us the ways Gene changes his personality if he and the rest of the kids keep going to the dungeon. Gene has shown he is a bit self centered and will try his best to keep his conscience clean, but he hasn't been confronted about anything yet. I think of Gene continues to change the way he acts depending on who he's with, he will get caught up in his own stories and things will end worse for him.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the students act very differently on the field or in class than they do in the butt room. I think that what happens in the butt room might change some perspectives of other characters. But I don't think that the room will play a big part in the book, also It seems like the room is obvious enough that they would get caught, but I don't think that something like that will dramatically change the book.
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ReplyDeleteI think the Butt Room will come to be very important throughout the rest of the book. According to Brinker, "the truth will out" (88). I think this is foreshadowing, and the Butt Room is the perfect place for the truth to "out." It's a place where teachers don't go, so the boys are more likely to pressure Gene and Gene is more likely to cave. Though the boys who hang out there may have forgotten about Finny's fall for now, with his return their attention will probably shift back to Gene and his involvement in the mysterious happenings of the Summer Session.
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