Thursday, March 24, 2011

Chapter 13

This is Gene writing for Finny's last journal. I was June and all these military personal are rolling into the far common. Brinker's dad is here and he  turns out to be one of those robust old men who Finny always thought was orchestrating a fictional war to keep the country in check. He's all about the military, and lectures for a bit on the value of fighting for one's countryrationalize the old man's behavior, and  Brinker gets heated. Men like him are responsible for the war,he says,  and yet boys like Leper and Brinker himself are going to have to fight it for them.This makes everything clear for me now, I finally understand that this is why Brinker suffered such disillusionment during the Winter Session and why he turned from leader to rebel so quickly. It was the same thing Finny felt when he said the war was fake. I don't agree with Finny or Brinker. War wasn't the fault of the older generation – war is the result of something ignorant in the human heart.


 Picture 1 : This picture is relevant because this is the last place Gene goes before the novel ends to think about the war and Finny.








Picture 2 : This picture is relevant because in the beginning of the chapter all these army jeeps are coming into the far commons.
















""I had never talked about Phineas and neither did anyone else; he was, however present in every moment of everyday since Dr. Stanpole had told me."


"Phineas created an atmosphere in which i continue to live, a way of sizing up the world with erratic and entirely personal reservation, letting its rock like facts sift through and be accepted only a little at a time only as much as he could assimilate without sense of chaos or loss."

Chapter 12

 I'm carried away from the stairs. It felt weird. I had never took assistance from anyone except for for Gene, probably because he thought of Gene as an extension of his own being. I'm taken away to the infirmary and when I'm alone Gene comes into to visit me. I don't welcome him in and i basically just tell him "You want to break something else in me! Is that why you're here?" He tries to apologize to me but I'm having none of it.  Gene comes back later though and all i can do is look at him and wish, aloud, that there wasn't any war. I could deal with all this, if only there wasn't a war on. I tell him says that I've been writing letters everywhere, trying to figure out if he can be in the war with his busted leg. I'll hate it everywhere if  I can't, knowing that I'm missing out. Yet Gene thinks i wold be useless in the war because i don't understand fighting. Then Gene leaves me while i wait for my surgery. 









Picture 1 : This is relevant because it shows a doctor with its thumb down telling us thats there bad news and in this chapter Dr. Stanpole has bad news for Gene and tells him that Finny has died


Picture 2 : This picture is related to this chapter because after Finny dies in the infirmary, they have funeral for him.







"This was becoming the new background of Finny's life, this is purely medical element from which bodily health was absent."

"The toen of his voice fell dead center, without a trace of friendliness  or unfriendliness, not interested and not bored, not energetic and not languid."

Chapter 11

I see Gene come back but I'm in the middle of a snowball fight so I'm not really in the mood to see where he has been all this time. He stands around and watches for a bit. When he turns to leave, I hit him on the back of the head with a snowball. The snowball fight, which once had two distinct teams, quickly begins to break down as everyone begins pelting everyone else. The fight ends when they all turn on me. Oh, sure, pick on the crippled guy.  That night, at 10:00 pm, Brinker Hadley and three of his buddies come to Gene and I's  room, to take us out. As you might have guessed, this is largely illegal (even the seniors have to be back inside by ten, as we saw earlier). But since Brinker used to be the head of every club in existence, he's got a set of keys to most buildings on campus. Great for us. The group steers Gene and I into the Assembly Room at the top of the First Building. Inside are about ten senior boys, so Gene figures this is some sort of senior prank. But its not. They want to investigate my accident but i tell them everything that happened. I just fell! I eventually head out and i get to the marble stairs and notice that i slip. But then everything goes black.

Picture 1 : This picture is relevant to this chapter because at the beginning, Finny and a group of friends have a snowball fight.
















Picture 2 : This picture is relevant to this chapter because at the very end, Finny falls down the stairs.




"I wanted to see Phineas and only Phineas. With him there was no conflict except between athletes, some thing Greek inspired and Olympian in which victory would go to whoever was the strongest body and heart."


"This gathering had obviously been Finny's work. Who else could have inveigled twenty people to the farthest extremity  of the school to throw snowballs each other?"

Chapter 10

Gene has suddenly left for somewhere and he seemed as though he were in a rush. I don't know where he was going but it must be a pretty big secret if he won’t even tell me. This isn't really like Gene to just run off like this, I mean unless it were for some very big matter. This is just still so unlike Gene I just don’t even know what to do. Who even knows when he’ll be back? Could be in the next hour or tomorrow or who knows how long! Ugh well whatever, I know Gene I'm sure he's safe and knows what he's doing wherever he went. He still better come back soon though because we still having training for the Olympics to do. And if he misses one training session with me I'm going to be very aggravated. Miss one training session and he'll regret it by the time he's done! And i practically rely on Gene for everything else i do. He's with me practically everywhere i go like a shadow.

Picture 1 : This picture is relevant to this chapter because The location that Leper tells Gene to go to is "Christmas Location"
Picture 2 : This picture is relevant to this chapter because Leper has begun to go crazy from being the war.











Chapter 9

Leper is officially gone. One day, a recruiter  from the ski troops showed a video of, well, ski troops, all in uniform, gracefully gliding down a mountain. Leper was immediately taken in. He had no idea that you could do something like ski in the military. So he signs up and is gone a week later. Since he was almost eighteen, he enlisted just in time to choose his service instead of risking getting drafted and being assigned one. Were all going to miss him. We would've wanted Brinker to be the first to go. Now whenever anyone talks about war it has to be about Leper. Everything they read about, everything on the news, all directly involves Leper. I remain the only one outside of the joke.I don't want to play along and imagine Leper in various epic scenarios. Not really my kind of style thing to do.So I draw Gene away from that crowd,  away from the Butt Room all together, and i take him to while  to train for the Olympics of 1944. Definitely more productive than making up epic scenarios about our own friend in the war.


 Picture 1 : This picture i relevant to this chapter because Leper has finally enlisted in the army and gets drafted










Picture 2 : This picture is relevant to this chapter because the group of boys go into the butt room and talk about Leper in various war scenarios.














"Only Phineas failed to see what was so depressing. Just as there was no war in his philosophy, there was also no dreary weather"
"And because it was Finny's idea ,it happened as he had said, although not as easily as some of his earlier inspirations."

Chapter 8

I get back to Devon and the first person i see when the door is opened to my dorm is but who of course, Gene! Right as i see him of course i start by making fun of his clothes, which are old and, at this point, also smelly (since he's been working all day shoveling clear the railroad tracks which he tells me later). Gene tell me that there are no maids this year which neither him nor am i please about I (because of the war, Devon is cutting back). Now we just have to do all there work ourselves. Great. I decide that Gene and I ought to skip class. Since it's my first day back, I feel that I need to walk around and see the place. I wants to go to the gym. This is easier said than done, since the gym is all the way across campus and perilous ice covers the ground on the way. By the time they get there, I'm sweating and tired. I ask Gene about what sports he is doing as we are in the gym and he explains that he has done none. I am outraged at this! Although I shouldn't known he might take his academics over sports.



Picture 1 : This picture relates to this chapter because Finny want Gene to train for the Olympics.




Picture 2 : This picture is relevant to this chapter because when Finny gets back to Devon he is on crutches from his broken leg and it is hard for him to get around.








" In these past months Phineas and I had grown apart on this; I felt certain disproval of him for grumbling about a lost luxury, with a war on." 


" He was always speaking when his thoughts were somewhere else, asking rhetorical questions and echoing other people's words."



chapter 7

Its finally the day i get to go back to Devon. I'm so excited right now! I cant wait to see all my friends and especially Gene. I wonder how he's doing? Hopefully very well.  Hopefully he still hasn't given away my spot in the dorm or else I'm going to to have to do something about that. Hopefully there not to worried about me either. Before i know it I'm going to be back on me feet and doing everything i used to! Gene also better be following up on what i told him about sports. If i'm not going to be able to do them then he most definitely is! I really miss sports though. It was practically my life. I don't know what i would do without them. Well I'm just arriving to Devon. I wonder what Genes reaction will be once he see's me.
Picture 1 : This picture relates to this chapter because the boys go and dig out the train tracks to help the with the war effort.








Picture 2 : This picture is relevant because Gene gives Leper a pair of skis to observe nature and go on the hunt for a beaver dam that used to sit somewhere up the Devon river.









"Everything that had happened throughout the day faded like that first false snowfall of the winter. Phineas was back." 
" There was always something deadly lurking in anything i loved. And if it wasnt there, as for example with Phineas, then i put it there myself."

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Chapter 6

The summer session is over at Devon and I’m still stuck at home for a while. I wonder what’s going on now that the actual school has started and I'm not there!? I wonder how Gene is doing too. Gene and I were so close the thought of not being in the same dorm let alone the same school right now just feels...weird without him. Ugh I just want my leg to heal and go back to Devon. I decide that I'm going to give Gene a call and see how’s he's doing. Gene tells me that my spot as Gene's roommate hasn't been given away, and I use this fact to confirm Gene's loyalty. I tell him he was crazy when he was here and with his attempt to pass the whole thing off as a joke. Gene awkwardly agrees with me acting like something is up. Well with that put behind us, I obviously ask Gene about t sports. I'm horrified at the thought of Gene managing instead of competing. If sports were finished for me, then they were finished for me too, was what Gene was thinking. But I don’t feel this way. "If I can't play sports," I say, "you're going to play them for me." 

Picture 1 : This picture is relevant to this chapter because Finny is stuck at home with his broken leg while Gene and his other friends are back at Devon.










Picture 2 : This relates to this chapter because it is autumn and a new school year has begun at Devon.








"And a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become part of Phineas." 
"We had been an idiosyncratic, leaderless band in the summer undirected  except by the eccentric notions of Phineas."


Chapter 5


I wake up in the infirmary and I’m wondering how i got here. I somewhat remember myself falling out of a tree but how did it happen? I couldn't have just fallen out myself, I’m much to coordinated and not clumsy to do that. Could i have caught a branch? Or no maybe I was pushed possibly by someone else? But who was with me? Wait, Gene jumped out of the tree with me! But there’s no way he could have pushed me out of the tree. He's my best friend; he would never do that to me! I guess I just fell then. Gene came to see me while i was in the infirmary. Gene asks if I if I remember what made him fall. I begin to venture into something. I had a feeling about something, but then he cuts himself off and I apologize to Gene for having had that feeling at all. I think Gene has been realizing that I’m a little drugged up right now and it’s kind of hard to think straight. Gene looks as though he was about to tell me something but right when he starts to talk  Dr. Stanpole comes in and tells him it's time to go. Shortly after, Dr. Stanpole tells me that I am being taken by ambulance to my home outside Boston. And I leave Devon for the summer session.
 
 Picture 1 : This picture is relevant because Finny ends up in an infirmary after he breaks his leg.










Picture 2 : This picture is relative to this chapter because Finny is taken away by an ambulance to go to his home in Boston, leaving Gene and the other boys without him for the summer session.





"The fact that he could make a light remark pulled me back a little, and i went to a chair bedside his bed."

"It struck me then that I was injuring him again. It occurred to me that this could be an even deeper injury than what I had done before."

Chapter 4

Gene and I wake up, see the dawn, and realizes he'd better haul booty back to campus if he wants to get there in time for his 10am exam. Still, he waits around for I  take another swim before they head back together. I like the refreshment f taking a nice dip in cold water on a summer morning. Gene keeps nagging me to get back to Devon because of his exam but i like to take my time. You know live life while you can. We eventually get back to Devon. Gene fails his test. It's the first test he's ever failed. Ouch. Afterwards, while Gene is complaining about having failed his exam, I tease him about wanting to be first in their class. Gene admits to me that, actually, yes, that is his goal. I never really knew this about him before and now i guess i understand why he's always putting his academics first. I'm no star student myself. My biggest asset, remember, is my ability to talk himself out of situations i'm always getting myself into, my charm and vitality. But these are useless to me on an exam. But whatever, we all got our own strengths and weaknesses.


Picture 1 : This picture is relevant to the novel because in this chapter  Gene needs to get back to Devon for his exam. But Finny is taking his time because academics have a different amount of importance to each other.




















Picture 2 : This picture is relevant to this chapter because Finny falls out of the tree and badly breaks his leg.














" It was the first clumsy physical action i had ever seen him make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear of this forgotten."




"I never really saw him tired, never really winded, never overcharged and never really restless."

Chapter 3

Everything going quite swell at Devon. Pretty much everything is great except that i'm frustrated with Devon's summer athletics, which include such frivolities as badminton. To remedy the situation, I designs my own game which turns out to the the greatest game ever known to man! Its name....Blitzball. Blitzball is the perfect. which makes sense, since I made it up obviously. Basically, there's a ball. And you have to run, and when they have the ball they get tackled. Ball, tackling, running…yep, that's about it. Oh, and there are no teams. Just the way i like it. Obviously i turn out to be the best Blitzball player ever! I'm just naturally good at sports i guess. I also broke the school swim record for the 100 yard freestyle. Gene and I were just hanging out by the pool, and i just decides to try to  swim the  100 yard freestyle faster than the current record-holder, and have Gene time him, and I break the 53.0 second record by .7 seconds! Gene is excited; he wants to get the coach and have metry again. But I am having none of it. I doesn't want anyone to know about this, I just wanted to see if he could break the record.


Picture 1 : This picture is relevant to the novel because in the novel Finny Breaks the simming record for the 100 freestyle by .7 seconds.

 Picture 2 : This picture is relevant to the novel because of the new game that Finny devised, Blitzball.

"The odds were tremendously against the ball carrier, so that Phineas was driven to exceed himself practically every day when he carried the ball."

"Although he was rarely conscious of it, Phineas was always being watched, like the weather."









Monday, March 21, 2011

Chapter 2


The next morning from our adventures Gene and I get a nice visit from Mr. Prud'homme, a substitute master (or teacher) for the summer session. Were in trouble for having missed dinner the night before but thankfully for my enigmatic ways I was able to get us out of this predicament. I explain charismatically how we were swimming in the river and jumping out of the tree and how on such a beautiful day they just had to have a wrestling match, etc. Although ignores the fact that jumping out of the tree is even more illegal than missing dinner I don’t really try to avoid the punishment , but I to establish some sort of friendliness between himself and the master. Friendliness is one of my reasons for living. Plus these masters have been a lot more lax this summer of 1942, as compared to the regular school year where you have masters that are not as lax as the summer session masters. The master completely ignorant of the rules yet is fiercely loyal to and deeply loves
the school. In short, they just don't know what to do with me.

Picture 1 : This picture is relavent to this chapter because in it Finny wears a tie for a belt just showing more of Finny's personality.

Pitcute 2 : This picture is relevant to this chapter because of  all the teachers that the boys, especially Finny, get in trouble with for there shenanigans.





" We were careless and wild, and i suppose we could be thought of as a sign of the life the war was being fought to preserve.

""And it was possible, that if Phineas pressed hard enough,that there might be a flow of unregulated friendliness between them, and such flows were one of Finny's reasons for living"
It was a warm summer day at Devon and me and my posse was going to the big tree by the lake. Naturally I’m leader of our posse, mainly because I’m just awesome and great at everything. Especially sports which is mainly all I do at Devon. I’ m not necessarily the best scholar, that’s more of my best friends, Gene, strength.  So as I was saying we were going to this tree by this lake which we me and some people were going to jump out of. Naturally I was the first to jump out of the tree mostly because that’s just the kind of person I am. I always like to try new things, especially when those things involve danger in some sort of way.  I didn’t want to be the only one jumping out of the tree though, that’s not fun at all if I just do it by myself. So obviously I grabbed my best friend Gene to do it with me we did. Me and him went up to the tree and we everyone was pressuring us to jump. It was so exhilarating, it’s nearly impossible to make it across without the risk of falling into the shallow water. We both jumped, it was the most exciting thing ever! We both made the jump and everyone was so ecstatic! We pretty much felt like the most awesome people ever after that.  I’d have to it was an experience of a life time.  

Picture 1 : 
This picture is relevant to the novel because it shows a tree by a lake which represents the tree that the boys jump out of in the book.


Picture 2 : 
  
This is relevent to the novel because it shows a person in front of a group of people suggesting that he is a leader. In the novel Finny is the leader of his friends.




“Naturally,  Finny was going to be the first to try, and just as naturally he was going to inveigle others, us, into trying it with him.
“Finny got up, patted my head genially, and moved on across the field not deigning to glance around for my counterattack, but not relying on his extrasensory ear, his ability to feel the air someone coming from behind”