The Nagaumsett River is one of the major symbols representing what will come in Gene’s future. Its dark waters are unfamiliar, whereas the Devon River is friendly and well-known by the students at Devon. The Devon was where the boys had easy, uncomplicated fun in the Summer Session, but the Nagaumsett was never explored. It is only when the new school year begins that Gene really gets the chance to visit it. He decides to work as an assistant crew manager, and unfortunately, that means that he has to work with ill-tempered Quackenbush. Gene later gets in a fight with him, and the fight results in them both to falling into the Nagaumsett. Gene decides to take a shower “to wash off the sticky salt of the Nagaumsett” (Knowles 86). Gene has grown accustomed to the purity and consistency of the Devon, and the moment of entering the Nagaumsett has shaken him. He grew to cherish the Devon River and all the sweet memories he has associated with it, and Gene explains that “going to the Devon was like taking a refreshing shower” (Knowles 86). Gene tries to wash off the darkness of his coming maturity and lost innocence by cleaning himself after falling into the Nagaumsett. He then realizes that “it seemed appropriate that my baptism there had taken place on the first day of the winter session and that I had been thrown into it, in the middle of a fight” (Knowles 86). The start of his senior year signifies the beginning of an unpredictable journey that lies ahead for Gene and the boys. Not only have the results Finny and Gene’s end of summer “war” traumatized Gene and his classmates, but it is now possible for the students to be drafted into the actual war. The Nagaumsett represents that inevitable, yet daunting new world of possibility that has been introduced with the end of summer. Gene falling into the river is Knowles way of showing that, despite Gene’s opposition to it, the fun, simple days of the Summer Session have passed, taking Gene’s innocence with them as Finny fell.
I agree that it symbolizes the lost innocence of Gene. I also think that it symbolizes Finny's fall. Gene says "my baptism had taken place on the first day of the winter session and that I had been thrown into it, in the middle of a fight" (Knowles 86) When Gene's friendship with Finny started getting complicated, and less innocence, it was because Gene thought that Finny was in a fight with him. Before he had jounced the limb. he told himself "You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity." (Knowles 53) This means that Gene thinks he's in the middle of a fight, and this is when the friendship's innocence gets lost.
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