Period 5
4-4-13
Chapter 13
Summary: The military arrives at Devon to stay the summer and train. Brinker's dad came and Gene, Brinker, and his dad had a talk in the butt room and Brinker tells his father wants to be in the coast guard and Gene says that he wants to be in the navy. Gene watchs the platoons doing calisthenics and imagines himself in their place in the next few years. Gene comes back as his older self from the war and tells how he never killed anyone and that the words of Finny helped him through rough times in the military.
Quotation: "I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there"(196).
Quotation Significance: This is Gene when he comes back as himself at the end of the book after the war. He is saying that being in the school was like being the war, he had killed his enemy. This enemy is inside himself. This enemy is not Finny like he had orginally thought, Finny had supported Gene and only tried to help him. This enemy inside Gene was the one who pushed Finny off the tree and tried to compete with him and after the war Gene has conquered this enemy.
Reflection: This is the final chapter of the book. Gene talks with Brinker and his dad and Gene knows that he wants to be in the navy and Brinker knows that he wants to be on the coast guard. Gene imagines himself in the military and he sees a future where he is part of it and joining the fight. Then Gene comes back from after the war and tells us that he killed no one in the war except his enemy at school, because that was when he was on active duty. This enemy is inside himself. This enemy is not Finny like he had orginally thought, Finny had supported Gene and only tried to help him. This enemy was conquered when he was at school,and this enemy is not Finny. This enemy is inside Gene is the one who pushed Finny off the tree and tried to compete with him and after the war Gene has conquered this enemy. Gene had to conqueror this jealously and envy feelings he was having for Finny and his feeling for competiviness. Gene had kill the enmy inside him that tricked him into believing that Finny was his real enemy. Overall, this was a great book but it didn't have the greatest ending. The ending felt very predictable and the reader could predict it was coming. But other than that, this book is a great read.
Discussion Question: How did Gene conqueror the enemy within himself?
40/40
ReplyDeleteYou make an interesting analysis of the book. Maybe this book is saying the same thing as Lord of the Flies, that there is an enemy within that must be vanquished. Gene realizes that war comes from the Beast within. Maybe Finny is more like Simon. In some ways, Finny is almost too good to be true. Everyone else in the book is full of shameful thoughts and actions like Gene or full of pride and pomposity like Brinker or just plain crazy like Leper. It's almost good that Finny died since he wouldn't have been able to fit in with the war. He'd probably start a blitzball game at the front or something... Anyway, this book does make you think.