In this passage, there is a lot of irony between Gene and Finny. When they return to the dorm they begin to talk about the snowball fight that occurred previously that day. Gene asks “Do you think you ought to get into fights like that? After all, there's your leg-” (Knowles 155). This is ironic that Gene is coming back and wondering if Finny should have participated after he led most of the snowballs against Finny. This scene is characterizing Gene, even more, showing that he often does not think before he acts which causes him to get into bad situations. Another example of irony goes on later in the page when Finny wonders if his bone will grow back stronger. Finny asks "Isn't the bone supposed to be stronger when it grows together in a place where it's been broken once?" and Gene answers "Yes, I think it is" (Knowles 155). This is ironic because earlier in the book the doctor said that Finny would never play sports again and might not be able to walk again. Now Gene believes that Finny’s leg will be stronger which is not true. This shows that Gene is still in denial of what he did to Finny. He tries to believe that he didn’t cripple Finny but at some point that will have to change.
I agree, there is a lot of Irony in this passage. When Gene is worrying about Finny's leg, that can also be seen as irony in a different way. When Gene says, "Thank God" after Finny tells him that he can feel it getting stronger, we can obviously tell that Gene is relieved about that. This is Ironic because Gene is the person who broke it on purpose, so why should he want it to heal?
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