Tuesday, May 6, 2014
What causes Gene to attack Leper? The answer needs to involve a literal and figurative exploration of what occurs here (middle 145).
Gene attacks Leper because Leper suspected the truth. After Gene gets to Leper's house, Leper gets into a fight with him. Leper says "You always were a savage underneath [...] like that time you knocked Finny out of the tree [...] like that time you crippled him for life."(Knowles 145) Gene is still trying to lie to himself about what happened with Finny, so when Leper tells him that he hurt Finny, Gene feels guilty and mad. Gene tries to protect himself from the truth, and he doesn't want to hear Leper say anymore. Gene attacks Leper on an impulse because he was hurting Gene. Gene thought that no one knew what really happened, and when he heard Leper accuse him, it made him panic.
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I agree with the blog statement above. I also believe that by Leper telling Gene stories about how he was thinking about things when he was at the army, he is trying to get Gene to admit to jouncing the limb. I think Leper was trying to show that him and Gene are a like in the sense that they don't want to admit something about themselves. Leper doesn't want to admit that he may be a nut, and Gene doesn't want to admit that he broke Finny's leg. "'Like,' now there was the blind confusion in his eyes again, a wild slyness around his mouth, "'like that time you knocked Finny out of the tree" (Knowles 145). Here Leper is looking to see if Gene will show any signs of guiltiness. If Gene did admit to it Leper would see that he is not the only crazy one in the country. Gene fails to admit it and rather than being thought of as a "psycho", because he couldn't decide whether or not he jounced the limb, he denies it entirely.
ReplyDeleteLeper exploited Gene’s “savage” inner self in order to make himself feel superior and deflect from his own psychological issues. He tried to turn the focus of the conversation to Gene rather than himself. “Well, nevermind about that now. It’s you we happen to be talking about now. Like a savage underneath” (Knowles 145). At this time, Leper wanted to feel better by making Gene feel worse. Discharged from the army, Leper became depressed and angry at himself. Gene was an easy target for Leper to discredit. Do you think Leper's strategy made him feel better?
ReplyDeleteWhen Leper accuses Gene of knocking Finny out of the tree, the first thing that Gene says is, “You stupid crazy bastard.”(Knowles 145). Gene doesn’t say you’re wrong, and he doesn’t tell him to shut up; he knocks him out of his chair and calls him crazy. This suggests that Gene is very sensitive about what happened at the tree, but doesn’t necessarily mean that Leper knows the truth. Gene tries to discredit Leper and his idea by calling him crazy. Only Gene knows the truth about what happened at the tree, and he wants to keep that a secret. When Leper’s mother arrives, Gene apologizes and he repeats that something is the matter with Leper, and that Leper doesn’t know what he is saying.
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