I am going to talk about the part with Gene thinking Finny was setting him up to fail and is jealous of him. Starting on page 51 when they are back in their room and Gene is studying. Gene thinks that Finny doesnt want him to sucsead and become Valavictorian of their class, when Gene asks Finny what he would do if Gene did Finny says,"I'd kill myself of jealousy." I think that Finny meant that as a joke but Gene took him seriously because he has growing jealousy towards Finny, Gene idolizes Finny and thinks he is prefect which makes Gene jealous. Instead of talking about it Gene is slowly beginning to hate Finny, Finny proablly isnt prefect Gene just see's him that way. I guess that Finny might be a little jealous of Genes academics but it is nothing to how jealous Gene is of Finny. So I think that jealousy comes from both sides but Genes is stonger and very unhealthy, Finny really cares about Gene and says he is his best friend but Gene is starting not to feel that way anymore because he has so much envy of Finny. So when Finny says he'd kill himself of jealousy Gene believes him because he is so jealous of Finny, Gene also thinks about everything and over analizes it. -Amelia
In this section, Gene began to realize how bad it was that he jounced the limb. He also realized how being Finny wasn't as good as he thought. This was shown when Gene tried on Finny's clothes and I quote: "I felt like some nobleman, some Spanish grandee. But when I looked in the mirror it was no remote arristocrat I had become, no character out of daydreams. I was Phineas, Phineas to the life." This was also shown in Gene confessing to jouncing the limb.
I think that the first paragraph of Chapter 6 is really important. During this chapter, Gene returns to Devon for the first time since he jounced Finny off the limb during the summer session, and at his return, he finds Devon very different. The first sentence: "Peace had deserted Devon" symbolizes how during the Summer Session, Finny was Gene, and Devon's, peace. We all know that Finny was such the leader at Devon. We see this from his taking control of the boys at the tree, from his inventing the game "Blitzball" that later became a Devon tradition, and from how he had all of the teachers in his control so that despite all of the trouble he got into, he never actually got in trouble. Finny was peace for Gene too, as we see from Gene's love for him: trying on his clothes, looking up to him, realizing that his goal in life is to be a part of Finny, even after he pushes him out of the tree. Later in this paragraph, Gene describes that summer at Devon that he and Finny spent together as full of “summer calm” and “summertime power” and the new coming winter at Devon without Finny as the “coolness.” I think that this reinforces what John Knowles said in the first sentence. Gene looks up to Finny so much that he sees Devon with Finny as a place full of fun and friendship, but that with Finny hurt and at home, the “coolness” or what I think is badness foreshadowing bad things to come, is creeping in.
In section 86-102, we start to learn more about Leper, and I was wondering why bring him in at this point in the book? He talks about skiing to the beaver dam to take pictures. I just don't understand how this is relevant to the book so far. I also think that Gene seems to be uncomfortable around Leper when Leper talks about his expedition. I then realized that John Knowles added this part because it shows how when Leper sets his mind to go do something, he will do it, but Gene can't do this. I think that this shows Gene that he needs to take initiative of what he wants in life.
I think that Brinker, who is really fully introduced in this section is going to be a very crucial throughout the rest of the book. To me he seems to be almost the opposite of Finny, but he still garners the same attention. In the summer session Finny ruled, and he was very lose, trusting and carefree, in stark contrast is Brinker. It is obvious that he is in charge in the winter session, and he is quite uptight, suspicious and plotting. I am very interested to see how the two of them will interact when Finny returns to school. Brinker was instantly suspicious of Gene, and thought he pushed Finny, but he was not there, and he was not even at the school at the time, which means that there are rumors floating around that Finny was pushed by Gene.
I agree with you Christine. I don't understand the point of bringing Leper in this story now. I didnt think this was the right time to bring him into the story. During his conversations with Gene I was sort if puzzled because what he was saying was totally irrelevent to the story at this time. There has to be a big reason why he is fully introduced at this time and I can't see it yet. I do think this was the right time to introduce Brinker and I like his character. I liked how he made Gene go to the "dungeon" and try to have him confess. That was my favorite part of the chapter. I actually thought Gene was going to tell the truth. Brinker adds some spice to this book and I like it.
In chapter 9, when we see the words "separate peace" for the first time, Gene is describing what the carnival has brought to Devon, "...this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace." And I think what this really means is that there are so many ways in which we are not at peace, in this case, the war itself, his relationship with Finny and their incident, that sometimes we have to create our own escape, or as Gene says, an illusory peace. I think Leper is an example of this, because even though he has enlisted, he still maintains his innocence.
In chapter 9 I thought that it was kind of sad that Leper left I mean he was (as I guess we've seen so far but I don't know) Gene's only other friend that we've seen other than finny. Also another part I thought was sad was when Gene was trying to get Brinker to help out with the festival and Gene said, "This is the first time Finny's gotten going on anything since... he came back." I believe that it showed that Gene still no matter what he says still wants to make finny happy. Also that whole thing with the Saturday description I felt that it just might be a symbol or important in some way but I wasn't sure why it was.
In the section (p.165-177) I was really shocked about how Brinker set up the whole trial type thing. I really was expecting for him to actually investegate how Finny fell and got injured. Earlier in the book, Brinker did accuse Gene of causing the accident, but I didn't think that he would actually look into what happened, I thought he would just believe Gene, and I thought that he was sort of joking around when he first accused him. In this section, you could really tell that Gene was so nervous and scared that he would be caught, and I thought it was a really good section because it was really interesting to read. I thought Leper was acting really weird in this section, and like a little kid. I was also suprised that Leper didn't straight up tell Brinker that Gene had caused Finny to fall, because if I were Leper, I would have probably been mad at Gene because he pushed Leper out of a chair, and yelled at him. At the end of this section, I thought it was important when Finny stormed off because it showed that he had broken out from his old innocent world, and I think that was when he realized that everyone was nice and perfect. Also at the end of this section, you see where the stairs come in, which is really important.
I think that the way Leper Behaved in this section (pg. 165-177) was very interesting, and was presented in stark contrast to how he acted in his time before the military. Before he would have been thrilled to be included in this type of situation and would have shared everything he knew and also would have wanted to defend Gene, his so called best friend, but in this section he is presented as being calm and quite uninterested. He also appears to feel that he is above listening to Brinker, as revealed by Gene's description of his tone on page 175 "Leper's annoyed, this-is-obvious tone" before the war, Leper would never dare to act this way but now he has seen things that they have not and feels above their trivial conversations. It also seems that he is disinterested with everything else around him. One question I have is why Leper would return to Devon, because it seems as if the army would be able to find him.
In this section (165-177) there was a lot of foreshadowing about things that would happen later in the section. The first bit of foreshadowing was when Gene described their footsteps as "fell guilty on the marble floors". In this section someone was found guilty, someone fell, and the marble stair case was mentioned earlier in the book so it gave a hint that something was going to happen with those. Gene also says there was nothing funny about that room and that he did really like it at all showing that he would dislike even more.
In this section, 195-the end, I think that there are a couple of important parts. I think that the jeeps carrying sewing machines shows how some parts of the war aren't fighting, even though you're still in the war. I also think that Brinker's dad wanted his son to live up to what he himself wanted, and wanted him to get the glory for the family. Brinker said he almost did once, so he thought Brinker could do it. I also thought the part that said "war was made instead by something ignorant in the heart" symbolized how terrible things happened when something ignorant (bone marrow) got into (Finny's) heart. I thought the line "I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there" was quite true for Gene. It would've been wrong for anyone else, but for Gene it was true. And the last line, "if (Finny) was indeed the enemy" says that Gene still doesn't know if Finny was good, and that Gene's a little crazy.
I think that the color green was important to the 194 to the end section because people associate green as the color of envy. In class we have been talking about how Gene keeps seeing himself in the world and his descriptions of it. When the military arrives, all that Gene sees is the green of envy because, now that Finny is dead and Gene has no one to envy but his memory of Finny, Gene is envious of the soldiers and how their lives are all laid out for them, and there is nothing that they have to be as confused about as Gene was with his emotions.
There were several reasons why I thought this section (195-end) was important. The first is the whole part about enemies that Gene is talking about. How in the war, he never killed anyone, and they were his real enemy. But at Devon, he killed his enemy there, and Finny wasn't his real enemy. Another reason was all of the green. It wasn't just green, it was the kind of nasty, dark green, which ties into the colors theme, and what they mean. It sort of reminded me of a disease, and how it spread all over the Devon campus, and eventually took over Gene, making him join the military. The final thing was Brinker's dad. Brinker acted so differently around his dad, which was interesting. He seemed like the type that would have been totally independant, and not really submissive so anyone.
I am going to talk about the part with Gene thinking Finny was setting him up to fail and is jealous of him. Starting on page 51 when they are back in their room and Gene is studying. Gene thinks that Finny doesnt want him to sucsead and become Valavictorian of their class, when Gene asks Finny what he would do if Gene did Finny says,"I'd kill myself of jealousy." I think that Finny meant that as a joke but Gene took him seriously because he has growing jealousy towards Finny, Gene idolizes Finny and thinks he is prefect which makes Gene jealous. Instead of talking about it Gene is slowly beginning to hate Finny, Finny proablly isnt prefect Gene just see's him that way. I guess that Finny might be a little jealous of Genes academics but it is nothing to how jealous Gene is of Finny. So I think that jealousy comes from both sides but Genes is stonger and very unhealthy, Finny really cares about Gene and says he is his best friend but Gene is starting not to feel that way anymore because he has so much envy of Finny. So when Finny says he'd kill himself of jealousy Gene believes him because he is so jealous of Finny, Gene also thinks about everything and over analizes it. -Amelia
ReplyDeleteIn this section, Gene began to realize how bad it was that he jounced the limb. He also realized how being Finny wasn't as good as he thought. This was shown when Gene tried on Finny's clothes and I quote: "I felt like some nobleman, some Spanish grandee. But when I looked in the mirror it was no remote arristocrat I had become, no character out of daydreams. I was Phineas, Phineas to the life." This was also shown in Gene confessing to jouncing the limb.
ReplyDeleteI think that the first paragraph of Chapter 6 is really important. During this chapter, Gene returns to Devon for the first time since he jounced Finny off the limb during the summer session, and at his return, he finds Devon very different. The first sentence: "Peace had deserted Devon" symbolizes how during the Summer Session, Finny was Gene, and Devon's, peace. We all know that Finny was such the leader at Devon. We see this from his taking control of the boys at the tree, from his inventing the game "Blitzball" that later became a Devon tradition, and from how he had all of the teachers in his control so that despite all of the trouble he got into, he never actually got in trouble. Finny was peace for Gene too, as we see from Gene's love for him: trying on his clothes, looking up to him, realizing that his goal in life is to be a part of Finny, even after he pushes him out of the tree. Later in this paragraph, Gene describes that summer at Devon that he and Finny spent together as full of “summer calm” and “summertime power” and the new coming winter at Devon without Finny as the “coolness.” I think that this reinforces what John Knowles said in the first sentence. Gene looks up to Finny so much that he sees Devon with Finny as a place full of fun and friendship, but that with Finny hurt and at home, the “coolness” or what I think is badness foreshadowing bad things to come, is creeping in.
ReplyDeleteIn section 86-102, we start to learn more about Leper, and I was wondering why bring him in at this point in the book? He talks about skiing to the beaver dam to take pictures. I just don't understand how this is relevant to the book so far. I also think that Gene seems to be uncomfortable around Leper when Leper talks about his expedition. I then realized that John Knowles added this part because it shows how when Leper sets his mind to go do something, he will do it, but Gene can't do this. I think that this shows Gene that he needs to take initiative of what he wants in life.
ReplyDeleteI think that Brinker, who is really fully introduced in this section is going to be a very crucial throughout the rest of the book. To me he seems to be almost the opposite of Finny, but he still garners the same attention. In the summer session Finny ruled, and he was very lose, trusting and carefree, in stark contrast is Brinker. It is obvious that he is in charge in the winter session, and he is quite uptight, suspicious and plotting. I am very interested to see how the two of them will interact when Finny returns to school. Brinker was instantly suspicious of Gene, and thought he pushed Finny, but he was not there, and he was not even at the school at the time, which means that there are rumors floating around that Finny was pushed by Gene.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Christine. I don't understand the point of bringing Leper in this story now. I didnt think this was the right time to bring him into the story. During his conversations with Gene I was sort if puzzled because what he was saying was totally irrelevent to the story at this time. There has to be a big reason why he is fully introduced at this time and I can't see it yet. I do think this was the right time to introduce Brinker and I like his character. I liked how he made Gene go to the "dungeon" and try to have him confess. That was my favorite part of the chapter. I actually thought Gene was going to tell the truth. Brinker adds some spice to this book and I like it.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 9, when we see the words "separate peace" for the first time, Gene is describing what the carnival has brought to Devon, "...this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace." And I think what this really means is that there are so many ways in which we are not at peace, in this case, the war itself, his relationship with Finny and their incident, that sometimes we have to create our own escape, or as Gene says, an illusory peace. I think Leper is an example of this, because even though he has enlisted, he still maintains his innocence.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 9 I thought that it was kind of sad that Leper left I mean he was (as I guess we've seen so far but I don't know) Gene's only other friend that we've seen other than finny. Also another part I thought was sad was when Gene was trying to get Brinker to help out with the festival and Gene said, "This is the first time Finny's gotten going on anything since... he came back." I believe that it showed that Gene still no matter what he says still wants to make finny happy. Also that whole thing with the Saturday description I felt that it just might be a symbol or important in some way but I wasn't sure why it was.
ReplyDeleteIn the section (p.165-177) I was really shocked about how Brinker set up the whole trial type thing. I really was expecting for him to actually investegate how Finny fell and got injured. Earlier in the book, Brinker did accuse Gene of causing the accident, but I didn't think that he would actually look into what happened, I thought he would just believe Gene, and I thought that he was sort of joking around when he first accused him. In this section, you could really tell that Gene was so nervous and scared that he would be caught, and I thought it was a really good section because it was really interesting to read. I thought Leper was acting really weird in this section, and like a little kid. I was also suprised that Leper didn't straight up tell Brinker that Gene had caused Finny to fall, because if I were Leper, I would have probably been mad at Gene because he pushed Leper out of a chair, and yelled at him. At the end of this section, I thought it was important when Finny stormed off because it showed that he had broken out from his old innocent world, and I think that was when he realized that everyone was nice and perfect. Also at the end of this section, you see where the stairs come in, which is really important.
ReplyDeleteI think that the way Leper Behaved in this section (pg. 165-177) was very interesting, and was presented in stark contrast to how he acted in his time before the military. Before he would have been thrilled to be included in this type of situation and would have shared everything he knew and also would have wanted to defend Gene, his so called best friend, but in this section he is presented as being calm and quite uninterested. He also appears to feel that he is above listening to Brinker, as revealed by Gene's description of his tone on page 175 "Leper's annoyed, this-is-obvious tone" before the war, Leper would never dare to act this way but now he has seen things that they have not and feels above their trivial conversations. It also seems that he is disinterested with everything else around him. One question I have is why Leper would return to Devon, because it seems as if the army would be able to find him.
ReplyDeleteIn this section (165-177) there was a lot of foreshadowing about things that would happen later in the section. The first bit of foreshadowing was when Gene described their footsteps as "fell guilty on the marble floors". In this section someone was found guilty, someone fell, and the marble stair case was mentioned earlier in the book so it gave a hint that something was going to happen with those. Gene also says there was nothing funny about that room and that he did really like it at all showing that he would dislike even more.
ReplyDeleteIn this section, 195-the end, I think that there are a couple of important parts. I think that the jeeps carrying sewing machines shows how some parts of the war aren't fighting, even though you're still in the war. I also think that Brinker's dad wanted his son to live up to what he himself wanted, and wanted him to get the glory for the family. Brinker said he almost did once, so he thought Brinker could do it. I also thought the part that said "war was made instead by something ignorant in the heart" symbolized how terrible things happened when something ignorant (bone marrow) got into (Finny's) heart. I thought the line "I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there" was quite true for Gene. It would've been wrong for anyone else, but for Gene it was true. And the last line, "if (Finny) was indeed the enemy" says that Gene still doesn't know if Finny was good, and that Gene's a little crazy.
ReplyDeleteI think that the color green was important to the 194 to the end section because people associate green as the color of envy. In class we have been talking about how Gene keeps seeing himself in the world and his descriptions of it. When the military arrives, all that Gene sees is the green of envy because, now that Finny is dead and Gene has no one to envy but his memory of Finny, Gene is envious of the soldiers and how their lives are all laid out for them, and there is nothing that they have to be as confused about as Gene was with his emotions.
ReplyDeleteThere were several reasons why I thought this section (195-end) was important. The first is the whole part about enemies that Gene is talking about. How in the war, he never killed anyone, and they were his real enemy. But at Devon, he killed his enemy there, and Finny wasn't his real enemy. Another reason was all of the green. It wasn't just green, it was the kind of nasty, dark green, which ties into the colors theme, and what they mean. It sort of reminded me of a disease, and how it spread all over the Devon campus, and eventually took over Gene, making him join the military. The final thing was Brinker's dad. Brinker acted so differently around his dad, which was interesting. He seemed like the type that would have been totally independant, and not really submissive so anyone.
ReplyDelete