Gene describes the Butt Room as a dungeon. He says "on the playing field we looked like innocent extroverts; and in the Butt Room we looked, very strongly, like criminals" (Knowles 88).
In the Butt Room Gene is jokingly accused of fratricide in order to get his dorm to himself. Gene decides to play along with this story that his friends have made up for him. He jokingly admits to the "attempted murder of Phineas" by adding "a little pinch of arsenic in his morning coffee". Brinker immediately accuses him of having a false confession. Brinker then goes on about the funeral tree by the river. Once the story has progressed to a point to when Gene pushes Finny out of the tree he freezes. He narrates "just a few words...But I could feel my throat closing on them; I could never say them, never" (knowles 88)
Gene feels like a criminal. And the Butt Room symbolises his dungeon nightmare. A criminal does not admit to his crime, but is that what Gene has become?
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