1) At the top of page 155, the snowball fight culminates with everyone turning on Finny. Why does this happen here and why now? How does this moment foreshadow events later in the chapter?
Everyone turns on Finny because he both started the fight and spent the entire fight double-crossing and stabbing his allies in the back. Since this is a game, nobody takes it personally, and the element of uncertainty makes the game more fun. Finny sees it as a way to make the game more fun, and he creates disorder quite purposefully, as Gene observes," Suddenly he turned his fire against me, he betrayed several of his other friends: he went over to the other, to Brinker's side for a short time, enough to ensure that his betrayal of them would heighten the disorder" (Knowles 154). This complete disruption of people's expectations is just like FInny, and it is also exactly what he did about his broken leg. Finny was expected to act like a regular cripple and stop participating in games like this, but he does none of that. The fact that everyone turns on him now, like they would've before, means that they have begun to accept that Finny is the way he is and he isn't going to change. Brinker seems to be one of the few that is still concerned, and he seems to be determined to get Finny to act like a 'normal cripple'. He tells Gene, " ...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" (Knowles 160). Both this and the snowball fight foreshadow the trial that comes later in the chapter, with Brinker leading the proceedings and everyone turning against Finny. Like in the snowball fight, at the trial the kids are only looking for some harmless fun at first, and don't seem to take it very seriously--except, of course, for Brinker. In the end, they do end up causing a lot of harm despite their best intentions.
Everyone turns on Finny because he both started the fight and spent the entire fight double-crossing and stabbing his allies in the back. Since this is a game, nobody takes it personally, and the element of uncertainty makes the game more fun. Finny sees it as a way to make the game more fun, and he creates disorder quite purposefully, as Gene observes," Suddenly he turned his fire against me, he betrayed several of his other friends: he went over to the other, to Brinker's side for a short time, enough to ensure that his betrayal of them would heighten the disorder" (Knowles 154). This complete disruption of people's expectations is just like FInny, and it is also exactly what he did about his broken leg. Finny was expected to act like a regular cripple and stop participating in games like this, but he does none of that. The fact that everyone turns on him now, like they would've before, means that they have begun to accept that Finny is the way he is and he isn't going to change. Brinker seems to be one of the few that is still concerned, and he seems to be determined to get Finny to act like a 'normal cripple'. He tells Gene, " ...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" (Knowles 160). Both this and the snowball fight foreshadow the trial that comes later in the chapter, with Brinker leading the proceedings and everyone turning against Finny. Like in the snowball fight, at the trial the kids are only looking for some harmless fun at first, and don't seem to take it very seriously--except, of course, for Brinker. In the end, they do end up causing a lot of harm despite their best intentions.
I totally agree with you. Earlier in the book we saw Gene and Finny starting to switch personalities but now since Finny is back everything between the to boy is starting to become normal again. Finny is being his normal athletic self and Gene is slowly starting turn into the old Gene.
ReplyDeleteThis event when everyone turns on Finny during the snowball fight is because of what Finny did before. Finny and some boys were having a snowball fight when Finny just turned on all his allies and hit them randomly. The boys jokingly enraged all attacked Finny at once as in pay back. Everyone knew it was just a game and Finny just decided to turn on everyone so he could wrap things up by just taking everyone down. In return everyone decided to give him revenge as a joke. I agree with Ayame that this can be a symbol for what Finny did with his broken leg. Finny is very unexpected since nobody expected him to turn on them and when he became crippled nobody thought Finny would keep being his old self. Ayame makes a good point about how you can make a foreshadow about the trial that appears later on in this chapter. It makes sense that Knowles would do this because both the snowball fight and the trial are supposed to be something fun and Brinker is the only exception. Even if the boys were just meaning to have fun and play around there was still some harm done.
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