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Post by joshualiu on Oct 27, 2015 20:43:12 GMT
Many allusions are made in the novel, A Separate Peace, many of which refer to Biblical context. At the beginning of Gene's fall session at Devon, a prominent allusion becomes quite lucid. Gene explains that, "whenever I glimpsed this river, I thought of Phineas" (Knowles 75). Gene then describes Finny as a river god displaying perfection that transcended gravity and encompassed glory. Finny is being referenced to the figure of Jesus Christ, the savior described in the Bible. Gene's inciting incident is a direct result of Finny breaking his leg and losing his ability to play sports and join the war. In order for Gene to grow out of childhood and make it to the liminal stage, Finny had to sacrifice a part of his life that was extremely important to him. Later in the story, Gene then has his epiphany moment when Finny falls down the stairs. Finny literally loses his life as a sacrifice for Gene to grow up into adulthood. Similarly, Christ had to willingly sacrifice his own life in order to save the people from their sins, benefiting them while bringing pain upon himself. Finny is clearly an allusion to a Christ-like figure that had sacrificed (though unwillingly) his athletic abilities and eventually his life, in order to push Gene into adulthood. (I actually found this quite ironic, as Finny is arguably the most child-like character throughout the entire novel)
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Post by oliviamccubbins on Oct 28, 2015 1:23:40 GMT
I like all the Biblical allusions that you brought up and I have one that we didn't talk about in class. Cain and Abel is a story of jealously. When Abel pleases the Lord but Cain doesn't Cain gets so jealous he kills Abel. He cannot except what happens and denies that he has done something wrong. He spends that rest of his days wandering around the Earth. Cain would be Gene and Abel would be Finny. Gene gets so jealous that he jolted the branch. Similar to how Cain and Abel went down. I like the Christ imagery but to extend that Christ forces his friends to face his death. Finny grows up because of Gene's death. And Finny dies because he realizes if Gene grows up then nobody is left to feed his ego. Gene and Finny's relationship is like the mob. Finny demands that Gene pay attention to him because Finny eeds the attention. Gene pays him and feeds his ego because he doesn't think he can survive without him.
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Post by carlsonchris on Oct 30, 2015 1:39:49 GMT
To further your Cain metaphor Olivia, it seems Gene is constantly on the move, with the reference to him moving around different army bases when he is finally drafted and how he seems to need to go back to the school to find his closure. In the case of the Christ metaphor, Gene can be taken as Peter who could not face his own guilt, with Gene denying that he did anything wrong except to Finny and Peter denying he knew Christ three times until the rooster crowed and he cried, which is known Repentance of Peter.
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Post by gerryliu on Oct 31, 2015 4:14:55 GMT
To add onto Josh's point, Gene recognizes Finny's role in his development to adulthood in the last pages of the book (202-204). "During the time I was with him, Phineas created an atmosphere in which I continued to live... My fury was gone... Phineas had absorbed it and taken it with him, and I was rid of it forever." Furthermore, could the "trial" that is put on to determine why Phineas fell during chapter 11 be a connection to the Judgement of Christ? Following both events, Jesus and Finny had their "fall" both literally and figuratively. The results of Finny's fall was the trigger for the epiphany of Gene and the fall of Jesus was the trigger for redemption.
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Post by ryanwalchonski on Oct 31, 2015 18:34:40 GMT
Another Allusion that should be mentioned, unrelated to the Bible is on page 162 when Gene is translating the story about Caesar from Latin. It must be noted just how Julius Caesar was killed, which was one of his fellow members of Government (and friend) stabbed him in the back. Isn't this oddly similar to what Gene did to Finny? Gene essentially ruined everything that Phineas loved and wanted to do in life. As it can be later seen in the book is that Phineas had been desperately trying to join any branch of the military of any country, but gets rejected by everything. Based on Phineas' personality and athleticism, he should've been leading men into battle, but because of Gene he could not even get a desk job. Also, Phineas' favorite thing to do was play sports, but was unable to after his break.
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