Gene’s Responsibility for Fineas’ Death Essay Example
Gene’s Responsibility for Fineas’ Death Essay Example

Gene’s Responsibility for Fineas’ Death Essay Example

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Gene is ultimately responsible for Finny’s death. Though he wasn’t the only person to have caused Finny to die, Gene did contribute to Finny dying the most. At first, Gene and Finny were best friends.

Their friendship seemed perfect as if nothing could stop it. Finny led and Gene let him lead and did pretty much anything that Finny wanted him to do. Gene even jumps off a limb of a tree because Finny wanted him to. Later on, when they go to the Headmaster’s tea, Gene realizes that Finny can get away with anything. Because of this, Gene starts to envy him.

At first, Gene thinks that just a little envy couldn’t hurt. Immediately after the “tea party”, they are about to jump off the limb a second time, and Gene almost falls. Finny saves him,

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but Gene isn’t thankful because it is Finny’s fault that he almost falls. Then, Finny invents blitzball and he is good at that, too.

Gene ignores it and says that that’s what he and the other boys get for letting him make it all up. When Finny breaks the swimming record as well and refuses to let anyone know, Gene doesn’t believe it. Later that day, Gene and Finny go to the beach. When they are done swimming and are ready to go to sleep, Finny tells Gene that Gene is his “best pal”. Gene wants to say that Finny is his best friend too, but can’t because something holds him back.

Gene believes that it is a level of feeling, that is deeper than thought, and contains the truth. The next day, Gene starts believing that he and Finny are rival

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but stops because he realizes that Gene and Finny are equal in enmity. Then, Gene realizes that Finny has set out to ruin his studies. After that, Gene becomes a better student, but he trusts Finny less.When Finny convinces him to go to another meeting of the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session, Gene and Finny try to go together.

When Gene is finally on the branch with Finny, Gene jounces the branch and Finny falls, breaking his leg. I think Gene jounced the branch because he grew to hate Finny even though Finny did nothing wrong. When Finny finally comes back to school, Gene feels a certain “disapproval” of Finny because he keeps complaining that there are no maids. Gene is frustrated by this because Finny wants luxuries while there’s a war going on.

For a while, Finny and Gene get along just fine after Finny comes back. One day, Brinker talks to Gene and says that Finny should understand that he’s a cripple and that people should joke about it with him and talk with him about it so everything is cleared up and forgotten about. Gene says that he can’t do that, but doesn’t do anything to stop Brinker. Brinker follows through by holding an assembly and, almost literally, drags Gene and Finny in.

Brinker calls him up and tries to get Finny to tell him what happened. Finny doesn’t remember much, or he doesn’t act like he does, so Brinker has some guys get Leper to tell because he is usually really good with details. Leper tells what he saw, though it isn’t very descriptive. He says that he saw two people on

the limb. One moved up and then down, then the other fell. He refuses to tell more.

Finally, Finny has enough. He says “I don’t care. ” and rushes out, realizing that Gene really did cause his leg to break. He falls down the steps on his way out, and breaks his leg once again. While Finny is taken care of and is getting prepared to go to the Infirmary, Gene stays out of the way.

I think this is because he feels guilty and knows that it is his fault that Finny fell. When Gene visits him at the Infirmary, Finny loses his head.He accuses Gene of coming so he could break something else in Finny. He tries to get out of the bed, but can’t because his leg is bound to the bed. Two days later, Phineas is dead because some bone marrow got into his bloodstream and stopped his heart.

I think that because Gene visits Finny, and Finny tries to get to him, the bone is moved and that is when the marrow gets into his bloodstream. When Gene actually goes out to fight in the war, he says that his war already ended because he killed his enemy at school, and I think he was saying that Phineas was his enemy because he often considered Finny his enemy.

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