Carter Liou: Question
2, Re-read Gene’s recognition of his use of sarcasm in the middle of page
29. In what way has young Gene revealed
himself to be weak and then to use sarcasm to mask this weakness?
In A Separate Peace by John
Knowles Gene shields his weaknesses by using sarcasm. Gene is intimidated by
Finny and there for does not want to become enemies with him in any way. In the story Gene and Finny go to the Prud’homme’s
for tea. There they talk about the war
and the bombing on Europe. After Gene
and Finny walked back and talked. Finny
concentrated. “Mr. Patch-Withers was pretty gassy, and his wife, and….” “Yeah
and?” Then Finny turning a look of mock
shock on me, “You don’t mean to infer that I talk too much!” Returning, with
interest, his gaping shock, “You? Talk
too much? How can you accuse me of
accusing you of that!” As I said, this was my sarcastic summer. It was only long after that I recognized
sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak (Knowles page 29). Here Gene is
saying that he was weak for being sarcastic towards Finny talking too
much. Gene was weak because when he said that Finny
talked too much during their visit to Mr. Patch-Wither’s, Finny responded
negatively making Gene automatically use sarcasm to cover his previous
comment. Though in a way I don’t think
Gene was weak because Finny seems short tempered and Gene probably didn’t want
to make any enemies before the actual school year. Another scene where Gene reveals himself to
be weak and covers it up with sarcasm is on page 18 where Gene says to Finny,”
I never backed away from anything in my life!”
Again Gene uses sarcasm to cover up the fact that he has backed out of
things before. Gene says this to make
himself look tougher that he really is.
Do you think the relationship between Gene and Finny will
change as the book progresses on?
Right now I feel that Gene and Finny are pretty close friends, and Gene can use Finny to get him out of trouble. However, later on I think that Finny is going to get Gene into trouble that Finny cannot get them out of. Once this happens I think their friendship will change because Gene would be angry at Finny.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with what you said how Gene "automatically" used sarcasm. This is an interesting way to put it because he doesnt think to himself about using it, he's weak enough that he just automatically does it.