Law_and_Government

Maureen Syeda 10/15/08 English 1 The relationship between Finny and Gene seemed very fueled from the start of the book; mainly because of Gene’s envy and resentment of Finny’s imperious spirit. Finny demonstrates his physical athletic powers and Gene’s jealousy makes him feel the need to emphasize his physical powers as well. Finny invents a game which he called “Blitzball.” He uses this game to play in which everyone competes furiously but no one wins, perfectly personalizes Finny’s attitude towards life. Finny’s fall from the tree, however apparently cleanses Gene of his darker feelings and steers their relationship in a different direction. The fall of Finny from the tree immediately illustrates this progress, as Gene dresses himself in Finny’s clothes and sees himself looking exactly like him. From this point on, Finny and Gene both come to depend on each other for psychological support. Gene plays sports because Finny can’t, letting Finny train Gene become the athlete that Finny once dreamed of becoming. “I found it. I found a single sustaining thought, The thought was , you and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone…I felt better. Yes, I sensed It like the sweat of relief when nausea passes away; I felt better. We were even after all, even in enmity. The deadly rivalry on both sides after all.” This quotation is from chapter 4, as Gene slowly becomes conscious of the tremendous resentment and hatred that he feels toward Finny, whi is a far superior athlete, has a much stronger personality, and can talk his way out of any trouble. “My war ended before I even put on a uniform…I killed my enemy (at school). Only Phineas never hated anyone…” Gene goes on to say that what separated Finny from everyone else was his inability, or lack of desire, to understand those feelings of war and enmity. For Finny, everyone was a friend; no one deserved fear and hatred.