Chapter 1, PG's 9-20, Question 3 by Lachie McGrath

3.) Gene visits two specific places upon his return: the First Academy Building and the tree. Name and explain two specific things he notices/realizes about these places/things now (as opposed to then) and why Knowles might have done this.

Gene firstly visits the First Academy Building in a yard called Far Common. He notices three things while he is in there. Firstly he notices that the marble staircase is old and worn. This leads his realisation that the steps were unusually hard and a lot harder than he had remembered. This was “surprising that I had overlooked that, that crucial fact” (Narrator bottom of page 11). Finally he felt older. He had examined his convalescence from a small boy to a grown man and the steps that used to be taunting now were just normal. The second place Gene visits is the tree that he and “Finny” had jumped off. He noticed that the tree seemed older and less daunting as he and Finny had noticed when they were younger. He commented "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" the more things remain the same, the more they change after all. By this he means the longer the tree has stayed there the older and more fragile it has gotten. I believe Knowles has done this to try and illuminate to the responder how things can change over time whether it be long or short. It also expresses the difference of objects in the eyes of children and in adults. These were the two specific things that Gene recalled on his return trip to Devon School.