Phineas, just like Gene, is fighting a his own battle, a battle to face the truth. Finny is visited by Gene shortly after the incident. But during this visit Gene does not confess the truth to Finny but instead takes a listening ear as Finny says “‘I just fell,’ his eyes were vaguely on my face, ‘something jiggled and I fell over’” (57). This was the moment when Finny had already formulated the train of thought that his best friend couldn’t of done this to him. The thought that he must of just lost his balance and fell. Though this may seem like a rational thing to do people often forget what the end result may be. It’s always better to face what really happened up front instead of creating a fantasy, as you will see with Finny. Finny’s injury …show more content…
He was also of no use to the military. It may seem like a score because you don’t have to put your life out on the lines, but for many young men being in the war was one of the most honorable things you could do. Finny, being the person he is, didn’t truly talk to anyone about how he felt about the incident. Instead of facing the truth he created a fantasy. A fantasy that the war actually wasn’t real at all, but that it was a show created high society fat men to keep everyone in check. This was Finny’s version of a quick fix for the pain he felt inside, the pain of facing the truth. Even though this war was the glue holding Gene and Finny’s friendship together it was also what caused Finny fall apart. One night there was a ‘meeting’ to collect all the facts about what really happened that day a the lake. Towards the end of the ‘meeting’ Finny was about to storm out of the room when one boy makes a comment, this comment hits Finny with reality like a slap in the face. As Knowles writes it “The words shocked Phineas into awareness. He whirled as though being attacked from behind” (169). I believe this is the exact moment Phineas accepted the