| 1) “I welcomed each day as though it were a new life, where all past failures and problems were erased, and all future possibilities and joys were available to be achieved probably before nightfall.” |
This quote conveys a comforting sense of hope and is a welcome change from the rest of the book, and I found it to be something that would be a good quote to live by. |
| 2) “Yes, he had practically saved my life. He had also practically lost it for me. I wouldn’t have been on that damn limb except for him.” |
I was full of righteous fury when i read this. I remember thinking how foolish he was for thinking of Finny as his “Lord and Savior” when Gene had been so upset about Finny making him jump from the tree that so terrified him and I felt relieved that Gene realized his error in feeling terribly grateful. |
| 3) “He had unconsciously invented a game which brought his own athletic gifts to their highest pitch.” |
Then Finny is subconsciously a a power monger who can’t stand order or anyone else outshining him or his ideas. He loves the fact (whether consciously or not) that his charisma has such power over people and that he is he doesn’t like reality, he can just change it. |
| 4) “The next morning I saw dawn for the first time. It began not as a gorgeous fanfare over the ocean I had expected, but as a strange grey thing like sunshine seen through burlap.” |
This sentence embodies Gene’s entire expectation/reality complex, especially in relation to Finny. He expects a wonderful thing that only brings sorrow and gloom. |
| 5) “We had been the idiosyncratic band of the summer, undirected except by the eccentric notions of Phineas.” |
This describes the summer session perfectly and creates a good summary to compare the new winter session school year to. |
| 6) “‘the next time you call someone maimed’ I bit the words harshly so he would understand them, ‘you better make sure they are first.'” |
Gene’s actions are extremely ironic in that he loses all senses and blindly attacks on angry and indeed maimed defense. If he wasn’t maimed or truly believed he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have been so defensive. |
| 7) “So the war swept over us like a wave at the seashore… seemingly inescapable and then at the last moment eluded by a word from Phineas I had simply ducked, that was all and the wave’s concentrated power hurtled harmlessly overhead…
|
Gene is spared from the violence of the war by Finny and his fantasies that cause Gene to duck under the wave and avoid harm. although this sounds all well and good, it is only momentary and when it finally does hit, it is twice as powerful |
| 8) “What I mean is, I love winter and when you really love something, then it loves you back in whatever way it has to love.” |
The lovely simplicity is the essence of Finny’s personality and even though it sounds ridiculous to Gene, it is very poetic and is exactly something Finny would say since he is always seeking the good in things, even a bleak winter. |
| 9) “‘I wish you hadn’t found out. What did you have to find out for?’ we started to laugh again…” (talking about the reality of the war) |
The two boys finally come to terms with reality and admit to themselves that they were just fooling each other because it is easier that way and it is here that a slight bit of sanity is peeked at, if only for a moment. |
| 10) “Nothing as he was growing up at home, nothing at Devon, nothing even about the war had broken his harmonious and natural unity. So at last I had.” |
Gene finally admits to himself, kind of victoriously, that he had the power to destroy Finny, when nothing else could. We can see that Gene realizes this and partially feels he has liberated his friend Finny from the war by killing him and also the defeater of his life- long enemy. |
I love your insight here: “Then Finny is subconsciously a a power monger who can’t stand order or anyone else outshining him or his ideas. He loves the fact (whether consciously or not) that his charisma has such power over people and that he is he doesn’t like reality, he can just change it.”
Why do you think Finny loved winter? Because it is cold? never changes? nothing new?
bozeman
I think he loved it simply be cause it was a slightly inflamitory statement and it was something to talk about.