[Since your first question has already been answered and
students can only ask one question at a time, your question has been edited to the
second.]
Gene's envy of Finny in A Separate
Peace is what has caused him to jouse the limb of the tree, sending Finny
crashing to the ground where he broke his leg. And, now that Finny is not around and is
injured, Gene withdraws from athletics, choosing to be assistant to the crew manager, a
position usually reserved for disabled students. But, when Quakenbush accuses Gene of
being "maimed," Gene hits him violently across the
face:
I didn't
know why for an instant; it was almost as though I were maimed. Then the realization
that there was someone who was flashed over
me.
However, it is not so
much that Gene defends Finny, but that he seeks to defend himself. For, at the end
of Chapter 6, Gene Forrester remarks that when Finny telephoned him
and said, "Listen pal, if I can't play sports, you're going to play them for me,"
he then again loses himself to Finny, feeling
a
soaring sense of freedom [that] revealed this must have been my purpose from the first:
to become a part of
Phineas.
That
Gene seeks to become Finny in his subconscious envy is certainly apparent. And, that
because of this weakness of character he can find identity only by association with
another person, Gene realizes he is, indeed, maimed and lashes out at Quakenbush for
having perceived his flaws.
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