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The infamous Tree
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enmity: positive, active, and typically mutual hatred or ill will
ReplyDeleteenmity
Gene always seemed to have an underlying jealousy for Finny. Finny was the exceptional athlete that everyone listened to, and Gene was just the best friend that followed and listened to every word. Gene realized then that Finny was also jealous of himself, and in a way I think this relieved him in a sense. It gave him a satisfation thinking that Finny, was jealous of him, and for his academics. He felt that it was a mutual jealousy, and couldn't believe he didn't see it sooner.
It's hard for me to read through this as Gene truly believes that Finny is jealous of him, and wishes him to fail. Finny couldn't wish anything but the best for Gene, and deeply cares for him. I found out that later Gene comes to see the truth, and that just makes him feel even worse about the whole situation, and he couldn't believe he thought the same thing as well.
Enmity:
ReplyDeletea feeling or condtion of hostility; hatred; ill-will; animosity; antagonism
(dictionary.com)
Gene is realizing the resentment and envy he feels toward Finny. Finny is a superb athlete. He can find his way out of trouble. He has a great personality and lots of charisma about him. People are drawn to him.I noticed that Gene tries to develop a coping strategy, at least it seems. Gene tells himself that Finny is jealous of him just as Gene is jealous of Finny. Gene thinks Finny is envious of his superior grades and of him wanting to be the top of the class. His thoughts help him to avoid the guilt he feels for resenting Finny. Gene excells in his academics in order to annoy and frustrate Finny.
However, Gene realizes that Finny does not feel the same envy or resentment toward him. Because of this, Gene becomes even more jealous and even a sense of anger overwhelms him.
Soon afterwards, Finny falls out of the tree. Gene was right behind him on the limb when he fell. Gene believes he caused Finny to fall and injure himself because he had "jounced" the branch causing Finny to look back at him and lose his balance. I can see here that Gene was showing his vicious self. I believe he did cause Finny to lose his balance but not intentionally. I really think Genes had thought of what would happen if Finny fell out of the tree. Maybe he thought he'd be the center of everyone's attention.
Enmity: Deep-seated, often mutual hatred.
ReplyDeleteFor the first half of the story, Gene is obsessively competitive with Finny. Deep down inside, he hates him and wants him to fail, because he believes that Finny feels the same way about him. He was so sceptic of their friendship that he actually believed that everything they did together was part of a scheme to keep him from studying and make him a worse student. Finny was incapable of getting in trouble, because he was so well loved by the facualty and the student body. Gene so hated his bestfriend, that when he realised that Finny sincerely thought of him as a best friend and wasn't any of the terrible things Gene presumed him to be, it made him hate Finny that much more. To Gene, that just ment that Phineas had one more reason to be better than him now. Gene deliberately made Finny fall out of the diving tree causing him to shatter his leg and end his athletic carreer.
Well, I will forgo the textbook definition, as it has been stated twice. Katie, hat coping method you talked about is called rationalizing. I think you make a good point. Gene knowingly holds on to a false hope that Finny harbors the same feelings as himself, because that would make Phineas just as bad as Gene. When he admitted to himself that Finny just wasn't jealous of him, he developed a hatred for himself and projected outwards towards the person that was the cause of his self-hatred. That's the way I see it anyhow.
ReplyDeleteGene definitely has jealousy and hatred towards Finny. Why shouldn't he though? Finny is popular, athletic, everyone likes him, and so forth. Gene is just the tagalong that people don't really pay much attention to. However, Gene realizes that Finny is jealous of him. He feels Finny is trying to distract him so that his grades will slip. Finny is supposably jealous of Gene's grades and is afraid that Gene will be at the top of the class instead of Finny. But this is not the case. Finny really cares about Gene and is only trying to live a good life with lots of fun. Gene realizes this too late though after he pushes Finny off of the branch, and after he wishes all of the ill will.
ReplyDeleteEnmity: positive, active, and typically mutual hatred or ill will
ReplyDeleteAt first, Gene loves being around Finny because of how great he was at everything, including being a friend to him. Eventually, he begins to grow jealous of his achievements and twists their friendship into a competition of sorts. He thinks that Finny is trying to sabotage his academics so that he could be better than him at that as well. This isn't really the case but Gene gets so caught up in it that he decides to try and sabotage Finny's greatest gift, his athletic ability, by pushing him off the tree.
Gene bottles in enmity, or hatred and ill will, towards Phineas because how can you hate your best friend? Gene tried to convince himself he didn't hate his best friend early in the novel. He couldn't publicly express what he was going through because that would make him seem as insane as Leper. The enmity started with a seed of jealousy for Finny's pureness. He was perfect. Gene made himself believe Phineas was also jealous of his academics since that was the only flaw of Finny. The jealousy grew into paranoia and extreme hatred. The bottle burst while they were up in the tree.
ReplyDeleteEver hear of someone trying to resolve age-old enmities? I think as Gene comes back to reflect on his past at Devon, he revisits his old enmities which he only discovered they existed when it was too late. Although it was well known by spectators that Gene and Finny were friends, Gene held the extreme ill will and hatred that exists between no one else but enemies, towards Finny. Gene was in spectacular in more ways than one, and Gene, feeling insecure, became wrapped up in jealous rage. Gene could break athletic records without trying; weasel his way out of any punishment with charm, charisma, and wit. The only thing he didn’t excel at was academics, a fact which Gene clung to as a desperate attempt to make himself even with Finny. He began to delude himself into thinking Finny was in the same level of envy for him as he was for him. However, upon discovering that was not true, Gene’s hostility became uncontrollable and he maybe even unintentionally, for being blinded by rage does make one not think, jostled Finny out of the tree, ruining his healthy, robust, and bright future. I don’t think Gene completely wanted this result, but as I said, he discovered this problem, this hostility too late, leaving it unsolvable. It haunted and yet strangely relieved him even into his old age.
ReplyDeleteenmity: positive, active and typically mutual hatred or ill will
ReplyDeletewww.marriam-webster.com/dictionary/enmity
Gene definitely has enmity of Finny. At the very beginning of the book I never really noticed it, I personally thought Gene was happy for all of Finny's abilities and achievements. Occasionally Gene didn't want Finny to get away with talking his way out of trouble... but by having Finny do that Gene also benefited. I think that as any friendship grows jealousy occurs from time to time. I would personally be jealous of having Finny as a friend, it would be rough being second best all the time to your best friend.
The only thing Finny wasn't amazing at was academics, which Gene excelled in. When Finny started the conversation about Gene trying to be head of the class is when I felt that all the enmity started. This conversation made Gene think Finny was trying to somehow ruin his academic future and stop him from being better then Finny. After Gene thought Finny was jealous of him is when I feel Gene started to show enmity towards Finny. Isn't it amazing how feelings for people change when jealousy occurs? I personally don't think Finny was jealous of Gene's academic talent, but then again maybe he was? Anyone have any thoughts on that?