Aaryan Khimasia
TASK 1
11/01/2022
Gene is the narrator of this novel. He expresses the events and what happens in the novel, from
his days when he was at Devon school. The novel shows us how Gene as a character changes
over time and how Finny and other characters and situations affect this.
At the beginning of the novel Gene is shown as an introverted sullen and gloomy character. But
one of his biggest changes undergoes when he meets Finney. They become best friends. He
becomes much more open and more determined to do things. For example, Finny and Gene
start a new club together. This is one of Genes new wild ideas to become more social. They
decide that participants must leap of a tree into the river to be part of the group. Through his
devoted friendship Gene learns a lot from Finny, such as compassion, trust and self-confidence.
He starts to join different intellectual groups and more clubs to fulfill his aspiration to be like
Finny.
As much as Gene loves Finny and wants to be like him, deep inside he has an incline of jealousy.
Gene is shown as a “troubled adolescent”, this is how Knowles puts it. Despite everything he
still wants to be more and more like Finny – more out going and fun. When Finny has to climb
the tree, Gene purposefully shakes the tree. Because of this Finny falls and fractures his leg.
This prevented him from competing in sporting events and completely cutting out his dream of
going to the Olympics.
Genes most significant change is how he confronts with himself and his inner being of sadness.
He looks at how everything “perishes” if you don’t work on it or evolve around it. He dresses as
Finny and started doing what Finny did which made him very happy. However, this happiness
slowly faded away, as he thinks about what he had done too Finny. Finally, he decides to come
straight up with Finny and tell him that he was the one who shook the tree.
Gene doesn’t let guilt or revenge to take him down, especially since he had told Finny about
what had happened. He looks at his past and sees where he comes from and who he was and
who he had become over the years "Nothing endures. Not a tree. Not love. Not even death by
violence." This shows how Gene’s and Finny’s friendship was one that no-one could do anything
to break which was one of the main reasons why Gene’s development through the story is
looked upon greatly.