Gene tries on Finny’s clothes to feel better because he thought he would transform into Finny and have confidence in himself, like Finny did. A few days before Gene tried on his clothes, Gene jolted the tree branch that Finny and himself were standing on, and this caused Finny to fall and shatter his leg. Gene did this on purpose because he was angry that Finny had tried to sabotage his grades in school. Gene felt terribly guilty and thought that people would start to suspect him. After Gene had put on Finny’s pink shirt, he thought to himself, "Its high, somewhat stiff collar against my neck, the wide cuffs touching my wrists, the rich material against my skin excited a sense of strangeness and distinction; I felt like some nobleman, some Spanish grandee," (Knowles 62). Instantly after Gene had put the shirt on himself, he felt special and important. He felt this way because he was wearing the shirt of someone who he thought was superior to himself, and this shirt acted like a costume to hide his own insecurities. Gene also told himself, "I had no idea why this gave me such intense relief, but it seems, standing there in Finny's triumphant shirt, that I would never stumble through the confusions of my own character again," (Knowles 62). Gene meant that when he put the clothes on, he took over a character that had no problems and no confusions in life, so his problems were lifted off of his shoulders. This directly reminded me of playing dress up when I was little. I would wear different costumes and instantly act the way I thought that character would act. For those few minutes in time, I actually believed that I had become that character. For example, I would put on a Queen's crown and gown, and I would walk around my house ordering people to do things. Those two props instantly gave me the power to make orders, and tell people what to do. Gene used Finny's clothes to transform himself into Finny and take over his character to lift away his own insecurities.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Brooke Graves: Pages 61 - 71 Question 1 (While Finny is in the infirmary, Gene is paranoid that people will be suspicious of him, and then he dresses in Finny’s clothes and feels better. Why does Gene do this? Why is this significant?)
Gene tries on Finny’s clothes to feel better because he thought he would transform into Finny and have confidence in himself, like Finny did. A few days before Gene tried on his clothes, Gene jolted the tree branch that Finny and himself were standing on, and this caused Finny to fall and shatter his leg. Gene did this on purpose because he was angry that Finny had tried to sabotage his grades in school. Gene felt terribly guilty and thought that people would start to suspect him. After Gene had put on Finny’s pink shirt, he thought to himself, "Its high, somewhat stiff collar against my neck, the wide cuffs touching my wrists, the rich material against my skin excited a sense of strangeness and distinction; I felt like some nobleman, some Spanish grandee," (Knowles 62). Instantly after Gene had put the shirt on himself, he felt special and important. He felt this way because he was wearing the shirt of someone who he thought was superior to himself, and this shirt acted like a costume to hide his own insecurities. Gene also told himself, "I had no idea why this gave me such intense relief, but it seems, standing there in Finny's triumphant shirt, that I would never stumble through the confusions of my own character again," (Knowles 62). Gene meant that when he put the clothes on, he took over a character that had no problems and no confusions in life, so his problems were lifted off of his shoulders. This directly reminded me of playing dress up when I was little. I would wear different costumes and instantly act the way I thought that character would act. For those few minutes in time, I actually believed that I had become that character. For example, I would put on a Queen's crown and gown, and I would walk around my house ordering people to do things. Those two props instantly gave me the power to make orders, and tell people what to do. Gene used Finny's clothes to transform himself into Finny and take over his character to lift away his own insecurities.
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Finny is strong, but not as strong as Gene thinks because overtime his memory has made the truth more vague. When Gene arrives at Finny's house he describes how Finny doesn't seem like anything's happening to himself and he is basically in disbelief, "he had seemed an athlete there, temporarily injured in a game; as though the trainer would come in any minute and tape him up" (Knowles 68). Gene explains here that to him in that moment, Finny seemed tough. He seemed as though he was only temporarily injured although the injury ruined his life. I believe that Gene is not looking at how although he is strong and is pretending like nothing happened, he is weak by avoiding what happened and not talking about his injury. All in all, although Finny is a strong character, sometimes Gene may oversee Finny's actions as strong because Gene is so weak himself that he doesn't know what strong looks like.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the distant past part of the story,Gene is telling us of the events at Devon through his present thoughts, which include the outsize memory that Finny may have left behind in Gene's brain. Finny seems to the adult Gene looking back on the distant past as a hugely significant figure whose important could not be overstated and whose virtues could not be sung too loudly. Finny is one of "...those men, the giants of your childhood, whom you encounter years later and find that they... have become pigmies while you were looking the other way." (Knowles 14). This is to say that Finny grew as such an important figure in his past through Gene's imagination that his influence on Gene's thoughts of Devon has come to dominate all Gene's thoughts about the school. The shocking thing about this fall of Finny's is that it is something that happened to him, rather than something that he planned for and prepared to work out in his benefit. Gene always thought of Finny as a planner and a controller, one who makes things happen rather than has things happen around him, and the feeling of putting on Finny's clothes made him feel as if he too had the power to make things happen, rather than to sit and watch the world of Devon progress and gently go along with the flow of life, rather than to make a serious impact.
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