...Knowles many wonder whether Gene was responsible for the death of his “best friend”(48) Finny. While Gene did feel some guilt for the death of his friend he never intended to kill anyone and cannot be held responsible for a series of chain events that lead to Finny's death which could have been prevented in many ways. The series of events that resulted in Finny's death can be traced back to when Gene “jounced the [tree] limb.”(60) With this action Finny fell off the tree and broke his leg. With no doubt Gene is responsible for breaking Finny's leg. If that incident never had happened then Finny would still be alive but it morally seems unfair to try someone for murder with an action caused long before with not only no intention to kill but also an action that no body could have foreshadowed being a cause of death. To say that Gene was responsible for Finny's death because he jounced a tree limb is unreasonable because Gene did not die from the fall. If he had died then and there from the fall then Gene could be tried with manslaughter. But Finny's death was caused by a set of chain reactions and if we want to start with this event it's arguable that neither Finny nor Gene would have been inside the tree if it had not been for Finny's insistence. With this is mind it's also very important to consider the true aspect of how he died in surgery with a doctor who didn't seem to care all that much about the death of his patient. Who when explains to Gene what had...
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...Gene tries to inform Finny that he caused him to fall off of the limb. Finny’s give the same response in the same section of the text. two times. He says , “Of course you didn’t, ”(70). Finny’s state of denial built up a lot of tension in his heart. He doesn’t actually begin to understand what Gene was tring to say until way further along in A Separate Peace. It takes Brinker’s organization, Leper’s testimony, and Gene’s consistent reiterating fact that he jounced the limb for Finny to get the picture. His only comment by this point is, “I don’t care.” When he finally gets a hold of reality it is too late because he spazzes out which results in a completely different injury. Another reason that Finny is to blame for his death is his creation of the club in the first place. Finny and Gene initially jump from the tree fairly early on in the book.(16) The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session was founded by Phineas.(31) He says, “We’ll form a suicide society, and the membership requirement is one jump out of this tree.” This shows that it was his idea to jump out of the tree and to do reiteratively. Gene agrees because Finny has a history of being in charge and getting his...
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