What is the significance of the incident at the swimming pool? What does the reveal about Finny and Gene and what does it add to our understanding of their relationship?
The incident at the pool shows that although Finny may win trophies galore, he doesn't always want to have the attention that comes along with it. When Gene and Finny were fooling around in the pool Finny thought that he could beat A. Hopkins Parker's 100 yard Free Style. So for fun Finny decided to attempt a run at this record, and after attempting he ends up beating the previous record by .7 second. After he beats it Gene insist that he breaks the record again so it won't go unnoticed, but Finny insists that Gene tell know one , " Don't say anything about it, to..... anyone (Knowles 44). Finny is telling Gene to not say anything because he doesn't always like the attention of being the best at everything. This certain achievement would have been particularly astounding because, "The sports Finny officially played-football, hockey, baseball, lacrosse- didn't have school records. To switch to a new sport suddenly, just for a day, and immediately break a record in it (Knowles 45). Had people found out about this record being broken, Finny would have turned into a sports legend at Devon but instead we learn that sometimes even the biggest and most daring people like Finny don't always like all the attention that they receive.
I agree, that Finny doesn't always like the attention of being a star athlete. Sometimes he just likes to know that he could do it, but doesn't want everyone to know about it. I think that this reveals how jealous Gene is of Finny. When Finny told Gene not to tell anyone, Gene was in complete shock because he thought that Finny would want to tell everyone and change the record plaque. When Finny didn't want to, it made Gene so frustrated and determined to get to the head of the class academic wise, so that he a Finny can be even. On page 51, it says, "If I was head of the class on Graduation Day and made a speech and won the Ne Plus Ultra Scholastic Achievement Citation, then we would both have come out on top, we would be even, that was all. We would be even....". When Gene realized that he could become even with Finny, he didn't hesitate to take a chance.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that Finny really wants Gene to excel in school?