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... to even believe Gene, and calls him a damn fool. Even prior to this, when Gene sees Finny in the school infirmary, Finny tells Gene about how he thought that there might have been some foul play up in the tree when he fell, then immediately apologizes to Gene for having that feeling without even waiting for Gene to check the legitimacy of this feeling. Afterwards, on the first day of the actual school year, Finny calls Gene to talk to him. When Gene claims that he was crazy and over the falls, Finny doesnt refute this, and even goes as far as to apologize once again for thinking that Gene was perfectly serious. With his open, honest nature, Finny cannot truly accept that Gene, who he considers his best friend, pushed him off the tree.
Finny's reluctance here can also be compared to another incident in the book. After hearing about Leper going crazy, Finny says, I guess I always knew [about the war], but I didnt have to admit it. Finny knows that Gene really had caused the accident, but he refuses to admit it and represses it so much that he literally forgets about it. Thus, when Brinker organizes the trial and it is proven (with evidence from Leper) that Gene did cause him to fall, it devastates Finny, and he rushes out of the Assembly Room, slips on the marble stairs, breaks his leg, and later, dies. However, if Finny had not denied the truth about evil in others and had openly challenged Gene, then the story would be much different, and Gene would not have gone through the serious mental development that he did. The final example of denial of truth in the story is Genes reluctance to acknowledge the evil in him.
There are many examples in the story other than Gene pushing Finny out of the tree that show the evil in Gene. Gene feels a lot of resentment towards Finny for all the things that Finny gets away with. One of these things is when Finny wears his pink emblem to school classes. He is questioned by the sternest of the Summer Session masters, old Mr. Patch-Withers, but gets away with it. Gene even admits that Finny's ability to get out of trouble makes him envious, but claims that it is okay to be jealous of a friend, but the next incident proves otherwise.
Finny often wears ties to replace belts, but on the day of the term tea makes the mistake of wearing the school tie as a belt. When Mr. Patch-Withers sees this, Gene [becomes] unexpectedly excited because [Finny] wasnt going to get away with it. When Finny does not get in trouble, Gene is disappointed and says, Phineas was going to get away with even this.
Genes reluctance to acknowledge the evil in him is proven later in the book when Leper says that Gene always [was] a savage underneath and Gene kicks the chair out from underneath him. Gene cannot accept the truth. In this way he is similar to Finny, although the reason why is completely different. Because Gene cannot believe that there is evil in him, he tries to tell himself that everybody else is evil and thinks that everyone is out to get him. Because he believes this, when Finny breaks the school swimming record, and refuses to tell anyone or do it officially, Gene says he is too good to be true.
This is because Finny's behavior contradicts Genes perception of Finny as having evil in him and it shocks Gene. Another time when Genes true viewpoint is shown is when he asks Finny if he would mind if he got the highest mark in the class. Finny replies, with obvious sarcasm, Id kill myself out of jealous envy, but Gene takes it completely seriously, and hides his true feelings from Finny. Gene even acknowledges that he does not know everything that there is to know about him and that there are still hidden parts of himself. But he says that these parts could contain the Sad Sack, the outcast or the coward. Gene does not mention the possibility of evil in him here or at any other time before Finny's death.
The good and bad points for this denial of truth are very similar to the ones for the previous example. Although Gene does not suffer for his refusal to accept the evil in him, Finny does, but only when he breaks his leg, and not when he dies. All of these people react to their various crises in different ways. For example, Leper [emerged] from a protective cloud of vagueness only to meet island so give up the struggle absolutely, while Brinker [develops] a careless general resentment against it.
It is interesting to note that all of the examples of denial of truth in the book end with the character in question facing a total attitude change. Leper becomes partially insane and much more assertive. Gene understands his feelings much better and is a changed person. It is like when Finny died some of his serenity entered Gene. Because he denied the wars existence, Finny caused Gene to stay away from all their other friends (Brinker, Chet, etc. ) and only talk to him. With Finny's denying evil in other people it is a little bit more complicated.
With each successive fall, it was like Finny's character fell too. For example, after the first fall, the bitterness in Finny was shown and he also knowingly lies to Gene about the war. After the second fall, however, there is a bigger difference. He attempts to hide his pain at the trial, but after falling again, he can no longer mask his anger with Gene, and shows this when Gene comes to visit him in the night. He tries to attack Gene, but cannot get out of his bed to get near him. Finny has fallen from his state of perfection and is like a normal person.
He does show, however, that he still has the ability to forgive when he sees Gene for the last time.
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Research essay sample on Breaks His Leg Genes Reluctance To Acknowledge Gene
