Have you ever asked yourself, why does Finny pretend there isn’t a war? Why does Gene go along with it? It boggles my mind because obviously there is a war, but he is making himself think there isn’t one.
John Knowles shows us how Finny pretends there isn’t a war. (p. 115)”the old men who don’t wants us crowding them out of their jobs. They’ve made it all up. There isn’t any real food shortage for instance..….. You’ve noticed they been getting fatter lately, haven’t you?” this quote show how Finny is saying that it all a conspiracy. Another quote show how he still thinks that there isn’t a war. (p. 115) “do you really think that the United States of America is in a state of war with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan?” this quote reveals why Gene goes along with Finny ridiculous idea of there not being a war. (p. 191) “you’d make a mess a terrible mess out of the war.” Gene feels guilty about the incident and he just agrees with everything Finny says.
In conclusion Finny pretends that there isn’t a war because he cannot be a part of it because of his injury on his legs caused by Gene. (p. 191) “I’ll hate it everywhere if I’m not in the war. Why do you think I kept saying there wasn’t a war all winter.” Gene goes along with his idea because it was his fault Finny had broken his leg. He caused the injury so he feels terrible and just goes along with it. I feel more clarified after writing this paper because I also wasn’t sure he Finny was saying that and why Gene was going along with it.