Assignment 40-60 Dowden

4.) What exactly happened in the tree and who do you think was responsible? Why do you say this?

The incident at the tree marks a turning point in Gene and Finny's friendship. Although I do think Finny's fall was partially an accident, Gene did nothing to stop it. "holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step towards him,and then my knees bent and jounced the limb."(Knowles 59-60) This quote suggests that, at least from one perspective, that Gene was simply stepping forward and slipped, causing Finny's fall. But he did not reach out to catch finny, and just watched as he fell. Then he jumped cleanly into the water. I think this is the culmination of the buildup of enmity in the last two chapters and both the boys realize it. Right before falling, Finny "swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest," (Knowles 60) before falling down. This shows that Finny realized exactly what was happening. Also, the fact that Gene forgets his fear, because it has been blown out of the way, shows that hes not exactly torn up about what happened.

Pages 40-60 Question #4, Sophie A.

What exactly happened in the tree and who do you think was responsible? Why do you say this?

Finny and Gene headed to the tree because Finny pressured Gene to go there and watch Leper jump off the tree for the first time. Gene did not want to go because he was studying for French but Gene as always pressured him into going. When they got to the tree Finny and Gene decided to jump off the tree together. So as they prepared to jump Finny lost his balance and fell. It is hard to tell whose fault this is because jumping off the tree and going there was all Finny’s idea so it could be his fault because of that. You can think even further and blame Leper for deciding to jump off the tree, but really you can’t blame any of them. Finny and Leper did not know Finny was going to fall of the tree it was an accident, but Gene might have done it on purpose because as described “I took a step towards him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb” (Knowles p. 59 and 60). After reading this you can’t be sure if Gene did it on purpose or if he was just bending his knees so he could prepare to jump. Since we were not assigned to read further we don’t know if Finny got hurt or if Gene tells us weather or not he did it on purpose. For now you can only conclude that it was an accident and nobody has a fault.