Thursday, April 11, 2013
Question #3, Explore and explain the significance of the scene in the Butt Room
In the Butt Room, Brinker and the rest of the guys there are jokingly accusing Gene of purposely pushing Finny out of the tree, so that Gene could have the room to himself. On page 89, it says, "Doing away with his roommate so he could have a whole room to himself" (Knowles 89). At first Gene tried to deny all of the accusing, but then he realized that it made him look guilty, so he decided to play along. The significance of this scene, is that Gene would never have said that he pushed Finny out of the tree. He would never. In the Butt Room, he said that he pushed Finny out of the tree because if he didn't, the rest of the guys might suspect him of actually doing so. It seemed that Gene would relax more because he had finally said that he had pushed Finny out of the tree. On page 90, it says, ".... I only had to add, pushed him out of the tree....... But I could feel my throat closing on them; I could never say them, never"(Knowles 90). Most would assume that after confessing about something, there would be a sense of relief, but in this case, by almost confessing it made Gene feel worse.
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The butt room scene shows the stress this is causing Gene. When confronted even jokingly by brinker Gene says he needs a cigarette and his blood is pounding. Gene still needs finny around him although he feels so guilty about what happened, "Everything that happened throughout the day faded like that first snowfall of the winter, Phineas was back" (Knowles 102). Will Gene still tell the truth to Finny even though he couldn't to the guys in the butt room?
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