Quackenbush uses the word "maimed" in reference to Gene not playing any sports that season and being slow and not very good at the job. When Gene decides that he feels too guilty to plays sports because of what happened to Finny, he decides to take on assistant manager of the crew team even though he's never played before. The only people who are assistant mangers of teams are usually crippled or have some sort of disability and therefore, the manager of the team, Quackenbush, refers to him as that because he is not doing well on his first day, "Listen you maimed son-of-a-bitch...I hit him hard across the face" (Knowles, 79). In this quote, Quackenbush is refering to maimed as being cripple because the only people who take that job are crippled or have a disability. The significance of this quote is that because Gene already started a fight with Quackenbush, and made him feel insecure, he decided to insult him in a way he knew wasn't true, just to make him mad. I think that he was also standing up for Finny in that moment because now that Finny can't play any sports, he will most likely be managing a team. All of Gene's fed up anger definitely came out about jiggling the branch and ruining Finny's sports life and he decided to stand up for all crippled. All in all, Gene responded to Quackenbush calling him a cripple in that way to stand up for his best friend.
Do you think Gene was thinking of Finny when he hit Quackenbush?
Do you think Quackenbush knew Gene wasn't cripple? Why or why not?
I think that Gene would like to believe that he was standing up for Finny because he had ruined Finny's life, but another part of him feels like he's standing of for himself. Right after Gene was beat up Quackenbush, he told himself, "I fought that battle... for Finny. Until the back of my hand cracked against Quackenbush's face I had never pictured myself in the role of Finny's defender," (Knowles 80). Finny also told himself, "But it didn't feel exactly as though I had done it for Phineas. It felt as though I had done it for myself," (Knowles 80). I interpreted this to mean that Gene is conflicted about his real purpose of beating Quackenbush up. Part of his wants to feel like a hero for standing up for Finny. The other part of him wants to feel like he doesn't need Finny for everything, and that he is capable of standing up for himself on his own. He also feels like he doesn't always need to be in the Shadow is Finny.
ReplyDelete