Gene and Cliff Quackenbush get in a fight with each other at a crew practice. This fight starts with Quackenbush ordering Gene to get towels, and makes fun of him. "... As many as you can carry. That won't be too many" (Knowles, 77). Gene gets mad at him but Quackenbush just comes back with another nasty comment. This is what starts the fight. Quackenbush is scared of Gene taking over his spot as the manager of the crew team, so he tries to keep it by bossing Gene around. Gene wasn't doing anything wrong to Quackenbush, but then he made the comment: "Go to hell Forrester" (Knowles, 78). This is what gets Gene heated and mad at Quackenbush. Gene's point of view is much different at the beginning of the chapter than it is at the end of the chapter. In the beginning, Gene peaceful and descriptive in his words. He makes it sound like everything is calm. "Fall had barely touched the full splendor of the trees, and during the height of the day the sun briefly regained its summertime power. In the air there was only an edge of coolness to imply the coming of winter" (Knowles, 72). However, at the end of the chapter he is mad and fired of at Quackenbush, so he is using language that has never been seen before in this novel. "You, Quackenbush, don't know anything about who I am. That launched me, and I had to go on and say, or anything else." Knowles, 79).
I agree with you Chris, as even before the real fight initiates, Quackenbush is already teasing and insulting Gene, getting Gene a little frustrated but that is just Quackenbush’s nature. As they continue to work and make conversation, it gets a little more heated and Gene begins to pity Quackenbush as he has been disliked his whole life. But as Quackenbush begins to slowly push Gene’s limits, Gene immediately drops the sympathy stating he, Quackenbush, knows nothing about who he is, and lashes out at Quackenbush the moment he makes the assumption that Gene is crippled in some way. Gene does this because he believes Quackenbush to be very ignorant and dislikes how he makes so many assumptions, but also because he realizes that Quackenbush is insulting Phineas as he is insulting maimed people. He confirms he was defending Phineas after the fight stating “I fought that battle, that first skirmish of a long campaign, for Finny” (Knowles 79). But he also says he felt he had done it for himself as well, showing that Gene still regrets hurting Phineas and is defending Phineas as a way of redeeming himself in his own mind, showing himself more than anyone else that he is not a bad person. I also agree with you Chris on the change in tone from the beginning of the chapter to the end starting out with Gene, having recovered and hopeful to start anew and get the job he wants and Knowles shows Gene’s feelings in the weather, but ending with only anger and bitter feelings that he had not gotten the job he wanted, showing how Phineas’s accident may act as an obstacle for Gene in his life, haunting him now and in the future, unless he is able to overcome his guilt and clear his conscience of pushing Phineas off the tree.
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I agree that Quakerbush started the fight, but I felt that Gene escalated it more than normally anyone would. Gene felt depressed and sad over what he had become, a manager of a sport, something only crippled people do. This made it easier for Gene to take offense at how Quaker bush was acting, driving Gene get mean back, which spiraled the fight to fiscal violence.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you as weel Chris. Justin and Elianna seem to have a very similar point of view as i do. Quakerbush, is an agressive, rude, and annoying classmate. Gene does't associate himself with him at all. I think that it was wrong for Quaker to talk like that, but Gene was already on the edge. All the sadness, regret, and anger boiling up, made the fight escalate quickly. I think that the way Chris used quotes effectively, made it easier for the reader. Also we can notice that Quaker isn't over with, and will surely resurge in the future.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Chris and Elianna, that Quackenbush started the fight but Gene really took it farther then it had to go. Perhaps the fact that his job was usually taken by a person with a disability reminded him of Finny and how he would never be able to play a sport again and would instead have be relegated to inferior positions such as the one Gene was in. Gene also feels the need to defend finny, as JJ points out, so I think that both of these things contributed to his fight with Quackenbush. Throughout this encounter Gene was driven by guilt, which might have been what motivated him to sign up for this useless job. He is trying to make up for what he did and feel like Finny will when he can no longer do actual sports-- useless and looked down on even by those who, like Quackenbush, are looked down on by everyone else.
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