When Gene goes back to visit his school, he notices that he has changed. In the beginning of the book, Gene was walking into the First Academy Building he sees the marble stairs that he has walked up many times before. He notices that "although they were old stairs, the moons in the middle of each step were not very deep. The marble must be unusually hard." (Knowles, 11) Although the stairs were always hard, Gene never noticed this while he was in school. While at school, Gene was too preoccupied to notice little things like that. When he returns, he has less to worry about, and he becomes more aware of his surroundings. Later, Gene is walking to a tree that stood out to hin his memory. He says that "it had loomed in [his] memory as a lone spike dominating the riverbank." (Knowles, 13). Where comes back to revisit the tree, he has a hard time finding it because he realizes that it is just like all the other trees around ther riverbank, not as majestic or special as he had imagined it. This shows that Gene has gotten over what caused him to think that the tree was so much more significant than the other trees. Knowles had Gene mention these changes before the retrospective because if the reader knows about these changes before hand, the reader will be more alert during the retrospective to try to figure out why Gene overlooked these details. These details that he overlooked shows that Gene has become a different person.
In the beginning of the book, Gene says that the school looks more polished and preserved than he used tor remember it. do you think that this was because the school changed, or because Gene changed?
I agree with the post’s Idea that Gene changed the most. Using the tree example, when Gene identifies it, he exclaims, “This was the tree…shrunken by age.” (Knowles 14). This quote shows that the tree seemed to gene to be much smaller than he used to remember it. Gene, therefore, has changed because the tree may have gotten a little smaller, but not by this magnitude. Finally, Gene has realized that the vibrant tree he once saw, has turned into a shrunken not-so-awesome tree.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the ideas of the post saying that Gene has changed the most after he returns fifteen years later to Devon. At the time when he was in school, he did not pay attention to minor details such as how the stair must have been hard as stone due to the battering it took from the students feet. This shows how though Gene has changed a lot from his previous years at the Devon, he still pays attention to details that he had missed when attending the school. After this he visits the tree that he jumped off of when he was attending Devon and barely recognizes it at first, he says "plus c'est la même chose, plus ça change." (Knowles 14). Meaning in french, that the more things remain the same, the more they change. Showing that though the tree remained the same, he changed overtime.
ReplyDeleteBy pointing out these two places, the tree and the First Academy, Knowles is trying to tell the reader that these places were important to Gene and the story plot. So many events have happened at the two areas that Gene feels obligated to visit them again and reflect on what had taken place there. The events that took place there in 1942 have shaped the person Gene turned out to be. As Gene states while at the tree, “This was the tree, and it seemed to me standing there to resemble those men, the giants of your childhood, whom you encounter years later and find that they are not merely smaller in relation to your growth, but that they are absolutely smaller, shrunken by age (14).” The tree is a significant part of Gene’s childhood, and he wanted to go back there to clear his mind and remember what notable occurrence took place there. Absolutely, something life changing happened to Gene, and Knowles will explain it throughout the rest of the book.
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