Gene Chapter 2 Summary

1. List whether the student was positive or negative for each characteristic and include whether the characteristic is dominant or recessive. (6 points)

In this passage, Gene speaks as his older self and reflects on the meaning of his

Interphase: This particular stage is divided into three phases, G1 (first gap), S (synthesis), and G2 (second gap). During all three phases, the cell grows by producing proteins and other organelles within the cytoplasm. However, chromosomes are replicated only during the S phase. In all, a cell grows (G1), continues to grow as it duplicates its

Gene is starting to get paranoid that Finny is trying to sabotage his academics. When Gene is studying Finny asks him if he wants to watch Leper jump from the tree, Gene freaks out at Finny blaming him of sabotaging his studying.

Gene becomes more disciplined and athletically inclined. He is undertaking circumstances that he knows will never come true, the 1944 Olympics, yet making the best of them to please his best friend. Gene is learning to do things although he does not want to do and that have no purpose. This is a difficult task for an immature child; however, through Gene's ability to train for the inexistent Olympics, shows that he is growing up. He looks at his training as if he were preparing for the war. Accepting that he must go to war is also another sign of maturity brought on by the training for the Olympics with Finny. Through his preparation for the Olympics, Gene's coming of age becomes more and more evident.

A highly conserved gene will be used to identify a prokaryotic species isolated from the body. Fundamental lab techniques will be also explored and utilized, such as amplifying using PCR, cloning, and transforming the gene into a host cell. DNA electrophoresis and specific substrate plating will serve as analysis check points. The final product will be sequenced and compared to similar species to observe phylogenetic relationships.

Gene knew Finny was mad, but felt the need to talk to him. Gene climbed into his infirmary room trying to apologize, and explain. Eventually Gene reassured him that it was some a crazy impulse and not a deliberate take out. This is the last discussion the two had. The next morning the doctor confidently informs Gene that he will have Finny’s bone reset by the afternoon. However during the surgery he faces a complication, where some bone marrow travels into his bloodstream straight to his heart. With a war going on the doctor informed Gene of his best friend’s death by starting off with, “This is something I think of your generation is going to hear a lot of.” Gene Forrester said he never cried at this news because he “Couldn't escape a feeling that this was [his] own funeral.” That was how close the two

Second, the injury puts Finny in the hospital, separating the two, which cause Gene to suffer depression. As Finny is badly wounded, he has to leave his boarding school, Devon, for a long period of time. He spends his time in the hospital, away from Gene. FurthermoreThis makes Gene regret his decision even more. Not only are Gene and Finny physically separated, but also emotionally separated. Essentially, Gene loses his

into the new gene. This is like saying a bird with no wings can fly.)

“But I no longer needed this vivid false identity . . . I felt, a sense of my own real authority and worth, I had many new experiences and I was growing up “(156). Gene’s self-identity battle ends and he finds his real self. Gene’s developing maturity is also shown when he tells the truth about Leper. His growing resentment against having to mislead people helps Gene become a better person. When Brinker asks about Leper, Gene wants to lie and tell him he is fine but his resentment is stronger than him. Instead Gene comes out and tells the truth that Leper has gone crazy. By pushing Finny out of the tree, crippling him for life and watching him die; Gene kills a part of his own character, his essential purity. Throughout the whole novel Gene strives to be Finny, but by the end he forms a character of his own. Gene looks into his own heart and realizes the evil. “. . . it seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart” (201). He grasps that the creation of personal problems creates wars. Gene comes to acknowledge Finny’s uniqueness and his idealism and greatly admires his view of the world. He allows Finny’s influence to change him and eliminates the self-ignorance. At Finny’s funeral Gene feels that he buries a part of himself, his innocence. “I could not escape a feeling

b. Our cells are programed to know when to grow, divide, and when to die, with that said just like any other machine, if these “parts” within our DNA do not work then that is when our machine goes off track and starts breaking down.

Gene gains peace from guilt when he becomes self-aware, mature, and remorseful. The subsequent time that Finny injures his leg, Gene goes to see him and expresses sincere regret, showing his remorse. When visiting Finny, Gene confesses that what happened up on that tree was a rage of jealousy that had controlled him. Confessing to Finny helps Gene overcome the burden of guilt. Finny’s death causes Gene to become sad, however he was relieved that they were able fixed their friendship before it was too late. At Finny’s funeral Gene “did not cry” and “could not escape a feeling that this was [his] funeral”, showing that he lost a piece of him (Knowles 194). Gene feeling that

Once Gene decides to spend time with Finny rather than doing his schoolwork, the shift from disciplined to more carefree diction determines Gene’s conflict, creating a more resentful tone. This tone directly corresponds with the conflicting diction as Gene says “Finny kept me entertained. He told long, wild stories” (46). By using words such as “entertained… wild… joking... musical”, Knowles is combining a carefree tone with a disciplined one that Gene first experiences. As mentioned earlier, when he states the decision he made “destroyed the studying I was going to do for an important test” (46), it mirrors the emotional state Gene is facing as well as the contrasting diction. Gene agrees to go to the beach yet he cannot come to terms with the repercussions of the adventure they are taking. He says it “blasted the reasonable amount of order I wanted to maintain in my life” (46). Gene himself is conflicted, which creates a resentful tone as he is unsure if the choice he made is the right one because it will affect his studying. Gene struggles with his constant “need to study” (57), until Finny requests Gene’s presence on different adventures. When they arrive at the beach, Gene describes a wave as “immeasurably bigger than I am, rushing at me... and took control of me” (46). The wave he experiences symbolizes Finny’s impact on Gene

In the middle of the novel, Gene starts to understand events as time passes. One particular event is when Gene visits Leper. Gene learns that, Leper has turned crazy. “I didn’t care what I said to him now; it was I I was worried about. For if Leper was a psycho it was the army that had done it to him, and I and all of us were on the brink of the army.”(144) Gene realizes that it wasn’t he who turned Leper crazy, but it was the army, and him and Brinker were about to enlist. Gene understands and realizes the horrors that are really out there in the universe. It transforms Gene by letting Gene understand the horrors and the reality of things that are happening.

Finally, it ends with inserting a different piece of DNA from another organism into the original organism.