Assignment #12: Gene reflects on Phineas' impact on his life at the bottom of page 202 and the top of page 203. In this passage, what do you think Gene means when he says "Phineas alone has escaped this," (202)? What did he escape? And did he do so by dying or by the way he lived his life? (also see page 204)

Finny "escaped" having to deal with such a large challenge that he would crack under the pressure, and not know what to do. He escaped this by both dying and how he lived his life previous to his death. All the other characters in the story "at some point found something in themselves pitted violently against something in the world... When they began to feel that there was this overwhelmingly hostile thing in the world with them, then the simplicity and and unity of their characters broke and they were not the same again," (Knowles 202). Like the poem we read in class, An Athlete Dying Young, Finny died in his prime, forever engraved in everyone's memories as the outgoing kid who could do no wrong. There is always the possibility that if Finny had not died then perhaps he would've one day come across that one challenge that would break him. If this had happened, Finny wouldn't be remembered as a unique person he was, he would be just like everyone else. However, Finny's personality before he died had also contributed to this. Finny possessed "an extra vigor, a heightened confidence in himself, a serene capacity for affection which saved him," (Knowles 202). Even though Finny suffered in his lifetime, he was able to persevere and not let the hardship of breaking his leg, twice, crush him. Even though Finny is gone, his legacy of having fun and not abiding by everyone else's rules lived on afterwards, and nothing can ever tarnish the memory of him.