Chapter 5 Summary

Finny’s accident reverberated among the students and teachers in the school, the latter feeling sad that one of the few boys that could enjoy the innocence of childhood in 1942 had to go through such a catastrophe. The evening of the accident, Gene wears Finny clothes, his pink shirt, for the first time, and he is stunned to find that he looks just like Finny. Gene realizes that he no longer has to struggle with his identity after this moment. At the infirmary, no visitors were allowed to check on Finny, and it was only after a few days had passed that the school physician, Dr. Stanpole, informed Gene that Finny was ready to see him. The doctor also told Gene that Finny may be able to walk, but can never play sports again, a traumatic verdict that he hopes can be conveyed to Finny with Gene’s comforting presence. The doctor hoped that Gene would help Finny understand his current predicament and move past it mentally. Hearing this, Gene breaks down and starts to cry, but Dr. Stanpole tells him to pull himself together as Finny needs a friend right now. Moreover, Finny had specifically asked for Gene as the friend to visit him.

Despite what happened to him, Finny seems to be in a lighter mood when Gene meets him, even joking about how Gene looked worse than him. Gene musters up some courage and asks Finny if he remembers what happened on the day of the fall from the tree. Finny says that his fall was only because the branch shook, causing him to lose his balance. He also says that he turned around to reach out to him, making Gene instantly exclaim that Finny wanted to drag him down too. Finny says that he only wanted to stabilize himself. Gene says that he wanted to reach out and save Finny, but Finny does not remember Gene doing so. He only remembered seeing a shocked look on Gene’s face. Finny also points out that the look on Gene’s face when he fell was the same as the look he has on his face now before Finny. Finny says he is unable to understand why Gene is taking the fall so personally and acting so unhinged, as if it happened to him. Gene says that was because it did happen to him as he was right there. Finny says that he knows that, as he remembered the whole incident in detail. This causes a brief, uncomfortable silence in the room, making Gene break it by asking if Finny remembered what the cause of his fall was. Finny, the usually direct boy, becomes unusually long winded and deflective in his response, thereby conveying that Gene played a role in causing his accident. But before Finny can have his foot set on this train of thought, he forcibly disconnects it, apologizes for harboring suspicions about Gene, and says that he just fell.

Gene is once again left in a limbo, for Finny just admitted to and apologized for suspecting something about the Gene that Gene knew to be true. Gene is happy and admires Finny for his belief in their friendship, for he did not want to even suspect his friend of harboring maliciousness toward him. Gene knows Finny would be straightforward and confess his actions if their roles were switched, and so, taking a page from Finny book, Gene decides to confess to Finny about jouncing the branch. He says that he wants to confess something terrible to Finny, but before he could go ahead, they are interrupted by Dr. Stanpole, who promptly sends Gene away. The next day, Dr. Stanpole informs Gene that Finny is no longer accepting visitors and soon, he is sent back to his parents’ place in Boston.

The summer session at the Devon school ends and Gene prepares to return to school at the end of August. Due to delays in his trains, Gene uncharacteristically decides to skip the final train connecting to his school and goes to meet Finny in Boston instead. Finny is excited to see his friend and asks him about the summer vacation. After catching up with each other, Gene confesses that Finny and the accident have been occupying his thoughts for a while now. Finny calls Gene as a loyal friend for thinking about him and his well-being, but Gene, unable to hold back his guilt, says that he has been unable to stop thinking about it as he was the one to cause the fall. When Finny asks Gene to explain, Gene admits, and even stands and insists loudly, that he caused the branch to bounce, making Finny lose his balance and fall. Finny does not want to hear that from Gene and refuses to acknowledge his confession. Finny does not want to associate Gene with the intentional act of harming him and is no longer in the mood to entertain Gene. He tells Gene to leave, giving an excuse that Gene is making him sick. It is at this point that Gene realizes that his confession is actually causing Finny more pain and starts questioning his own intent behind the accident. Gene starts wondering if he really did bounce the limb of the tree intentionally with the purpose of causing Finny to fall. Gene realizes that irrespective of whether intent to cause harm existed, letting Finny know what happened would only hurt him even more. Hence, he starts taking back what he had said earlier, giving an excuse that he isn’t making sense due to being tired. Finny tells him not to worry about it, seeming more at peace with the current Gene. Gene gets up to leave, saying that he was already a day late for school. Finny teases Gene by asking if he was going to follow the rules, and Gene promises the contrary despite knowing that this was a lie.

Chapter 5 Analysis

Gene is unsure of whether he bounced the limb of the tree intentionally or not, thus assigning motives to the action becomes difficult. Gene’s admiration and envy toward Finny got rounded up when Gene wore Finny’s pink shirt, where since Gene could not compete with Finny, he obliterated the Finny that he knew and took on Finny’s position forcefully. Gene does not realize the extent of his actions until he meets Dr. Stanpole, who tells him about Finny not being able to play sports anymore. Finny was one of the most gifted athletes in the school’s history, and he believed that playing sports was a means to practice “absolute good” with there being no losers. Gene’s actions forcefully pried away the thing that Finny cherished the most in his life, and realizing this fact makes Gene break down and cry.

Gene wants to know if Finny remembered what happened, probably to escape from being accused of intentionally causing the accident. When Finny says that he turned around to reach out to Gene, the act of Gene accusing Finny of trying to drag him down with him shows that Gene once again continues to push culpability and blame onto Finny to convince himself out of any sense of guilt. It also looks like Gene is still insecure about Finny even after knowing that Finny’s life has essentially been destroyed permanently. When Finny tells Gene that he only wanted to stabilize himself, it is a call back to the moment when Gene almost fell off the limb of the tree. At that time, Finny reached out to save Gene. Finny this time turned around, possibly hoping to be saved by Gene in the same way, but on the other hand, Gene was the one causing the fall instead. Gene cold-hearted actions show how much an innocent boy’s mind can get warped by the atmosphere of competition kindled by looming war.

Finny also refuses to accuse Gene of causing the fall as, despite claiming to have remembered everything that happened, he does not reveal the content of his memories fully during the moments of the fall. Finny places absolute trust in his friend and finds the idea of being betrayed by his own friend inconceivable. He also does not want to accuse his friend of intentional harm without knowing it for certain and blame himself for even entertaining suspicions concerning his best friend. But despite his willingness and intentions of not wanting to believe Gene as guilty, Finny knows on a deeper level that his friend had indeed stabbed him in the back at this most vulnerable moment.

Finny refusing to acknowledge his best friend’s motives and actions is also a way to preserve his own beliefs. Being an idealist and one to look at the positive side of things, Finny knows that entertaining the idea that a best friend could also betray you would open up the fact that the things he considers absolute and ideal in the world can also be corrupted. Finny is in denial of what happened with his friend, and despite losing things that he cherished most in his life, he refuses to allow doubt to cloud his conviction. He also seems to be holding onto the only bit of hope that exists in his life. Sports and athletics are forever gone from his life, and he does not want to lose his best friend too. This is why refuses to listen to Gene’s confession after the August break, even getting quite upset at Gene’s words. Seeing his confession causing more pain to Finny, Gene backtracks his words using the excuse of being tired. Once again, dishonesty from Gene continues to exist in their relationship, and in this instant, Finny seems to be encouraging this dishonesty from Gene, which is very uncharacteristic of Finny, just as how confessing his own fault seems uncharacteristic of Gene. Finny’s final joke about Gene following the rules makes it seem like the boys want to go back to how their relationship was before the accident, but it is evident that both boys have experienced a change in their personalities.