As this chapter illustrates, Finny enjoys getting himself into tight (and sometimes dangerous) situations, and he relies on his natural charm and often illogical view of the world to extricate himself. While military service overtakes the older students, only the 16-year-old boys remain careless and happy in this peaceful world. For the masters of Devon — and Gene, too — Finny comes to represent the "essence of this careless peace."
While Finny likes to defy authority, play games, and jump out of trees — all of these essentially childish activities — Gene, by contrast, wants to become an adult and feels that he should learn how to live in the grown-up world. His basic nature points him in the direction of conventionality and conformity, and …show more content…
When Finny, in an imaginative reversal, declares his belief that there is no bombing in Europe, Gene comes to share in Finny's vision of a world set apart from conflict. As the two boys cross the forested campus on their way to the river, Gene gazes up at the sheltering elm trees, which seem to him to extend endlessly into the heavens and northward almost indefinitely. For Gene, at this moment, Devon — the "tame fringe of the last and greatest wilderness" — becomes a kind of Eden, where the thought of war seems impossible, even absurd.
But in the midst of this Eden, there already lurks deep in Gene's heart a type of original sin — his growing envy and resentment of Finny. Finny, though, remains unaware of his friend's true feelings and proposes that they climb the tree again and make the jump together. He means this double jump as a ritual act of friendship — a way of sealing the bond of their "partnership."
What happens next, on the limb before the boys jump, foreshadows the central dramatic event of the novel (in Chapter 4). Suddenly, Gene loses his balance — physically, of course, but symbolically, too — and Finny instinctively grasps his friend's hand to balance him and save him from
While Finny likes to defy authority, play games, and jump out of trees — all of these essentially childish activities — Gene, by contrast, wants to become an adult and feels that he should learn how to live in the grown-up world. His basic nature points him in the direction of conventionality and conformity, and …show more content…
When Finny, in an imaginative reversal, declares his belief that there is no bombing in Europe, Gene comes to share in Finny's vision of a world set apart from conflict. As the two boys cross the forested campus on their way to the river, Gene gazes up at the sheltering elm trees, which seem to him to extend endlessly into the heavens and northward almost indefinitely. For Gene, at this moment, Devon — the "tame fringe of the last and greatest wilderness" — becomes a kind of Eden, where the thought of war seems impossible, even absurd.
But in the midst of this Eden, there already lurks deep in Gene's heart a type of original sin — his growing envy and resentment of Finny. Finny, though, remains unaware of his friend's true feelings and proposes that they climb the tree again and make the jump together. He means this double jump as a ritual act of friendship — a way of sealing the bond of their "partnership."
What happens next, on the limb before the boys jump, foreshadows the central dramatic event of the novel (in Chapter 4). Suddenly, Gene loses his balance — physically, of course, but symbolically, too — and Finny instinctively grasps his friend's hand to balance him and save him from