Name two important events of rising action that Knowles uses to build up to the climax of the fall. If you choose the trial, choose a specific incident to discuss and how it leads to the fall.
The first event that Knowles uses to build up to the climax of the fall is Brinker’s confrontation with Gene. When the two first get together in the unoccupied room, Brinker begins to accuse Gene of not enlisting in the army because he pities Phineas. Brinker follows by saying he should stop giving Phineas so much sympathy along with everyone else, as it will make Phineas “sloppy” with remorse for himself. “If you don’t watch out he’s going to start pitying himself. Nobody ever mentions his leg to him except me. Keep that up and he’ll be sloppy with self-pity any day now. What’s everybody beating around the bush for? He’s crippled and that’s that. He’s got to accept it and unless we start acting perfectly natural about it, even kid him about it once in a while, he never will” (Knowles 160). Brinker continues to push that he is going to confront Phineas, and when Gene objects Brinker states he does not need Gene’s approval, and that it would not hurt Gene to have the whole tree incident behind him as he has a lot to lose from it as well. This shows that Brinker still somewhat suspects Gene, and this builds up to the trial as Brinker states he is going to confront Phineas and mentions getting the whole tree incident cleared up, showing us that something will most likely happen between those three.
The second event Knowles uses to build up to the climax of the fall is Phineas and Gene’s recent relationship. On page 63, almost the entire page is Phineas describing his trust for Gene, and throughout pages 63 through 64, you can see how happy and relaxed Phineas is when he is with Gene, and vice versa. Then during the trial, it is extremely unlikely that either Phineas or Gene do not have an absolutely clear memory of what happened on the night of the fall, yet both deny remembering it clearly, but mainly Phineas showing he does not want Gene to get in trouble. Then before Leper is brought in and relays the whole story of that night in intense detail, another event that Knowles uses to build up to the climax of the fall, there is a moment when Phineas is staring at Gene right before he reveals Leper being at Devon, with Gene not returning the look. Phineas revealing Leper’s location and Leper being brought in shows that Phineas had developed some doubts about Gene, and whether or not it is possible that he did shake the branch. Because Gene does not return the look, Phineas’ suspicion is deepened as Gene is avoiding his stare. Then Phineas, wanting to know the truth and whether or not he can trust Gene, reveals Leper’s location so he can find out the whole truth. He called Leper in so he could learn what really happened to him that night. Then afterwards when Leper is mostly done, Phineas interrupts the trial and begins to storm out, clearly hurt by this new information as shown by him crying. But when Gene yells his name, he closes his eyes and when he opens them, “he turned to regard me with a handsome mask of a face” (Knowles 176), showing that Phineas is hurt but does not want to show it, so he attempts to try and make himself look strong. Finally in the end, when Brinker attempted to make Phineas stay, he looses himself and gets lost in his pain and anger causing him to not look where he is going, resulting in him falling down the stairs and hurting himself once again.
JJ Ma
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