Gene is a character who follows and is jealous of Phineas. Gene is a high school student at the Devon
school, in New Hampshire. It is currently the summer of 1942, right in the
middle of WWII. Gene and his best friend Phineas are at the tree that is near the
river. Phineas is trying to get Gene to
jump off of the tree into the river. Then right before Gene jumps, he has
second thoughts about Phineas’ judgment, and ideas. “What was I doing up here anyway? Why did I
let Finny talk me into stupid things like this? Was he getting some kind of
hold over me?” (Knowles, 17). As seen in
this quote, Gene is a devoted follower to Phineas. Thus far in the novel being
a follower of Phineas has only put Gene in bad situations. The reader doesn’t
quite know why yet, but so far it seems that Gene would do anything with or for
Phineas. Gene also shows signs of envy, and jealousy towards Phineas. Whenever
Phineas gets in trouble he seems to find a way to get himself out of it. Gene
is fed up with it and declares that despite Phineas being his best friend he
wishes just once Phineas would get a harsh punishment. Gene also show signs of
jealousy/envy because he wants to have what Phineas has, whether it be the
skill of lying, or the courage of willingly jumping of a tree into a river. Throughout
the novel thus far, Gene has shown that he is both a follower, and envious of
Phineas.
I agree with Geoffrey. Gene seems to be kind of shadowing Finny...not always in a good or bad way, but he still does it. I think Gene looks up/is jealous of Finny in a way. For example there was a quote showing how Finny is a people pleaser, and the way Gene said it made him sound quite jealous.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Geoffrey. Gene in some ways is a follower of Finny. They are two different people with different interests and hobbies, yet Gene still seems to follow him around. While Gene would rather be studying or doing homework, or studying, Finny would rather be doing something adventurous. Finny influences Gene to follow along and skip out on his interests.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Geoffrey. Gene in some ways is a follower of Finny. They are two different people with different interests and hobbies, yet Gene still seems to follow him around. While Gene would rather be studying or doing homework, or studying, Finny would rather be doing something adventurous. Finny influences Gene to follow along and skip out on his interests.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Geoffrey. Gene looks up to Finny. They do all these things together and they are Finn's ideas. Like blitzball and jumping out of the tree. Finny is more of an athletic type of person where Gene is all about his studies. Finny cancels out Genes interests because based on what we know about him, because they seem more fun.
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