Double Entry Journal A Separate Piece free essay sample

Every time, when I got my self into position to jump, I felt a flash of disbelief that was I was doing anything so perilous. But I always jumped. Otherwise I would have lost face with Phineas, and that would have been unthinkable. † P. 34In this passage Finny talked Gene into jumping off of a tall tree into the lake near their school in order to stay in their club. Once Gene is up on the tree he felt doubt that he would land safely. However, in order to stay friends with Finny, he had to do it. This is an Intratextual Connection because earlier in the novel Gene explains that even though he doesn’t like doing everything Finny feels like doing, he feels like he must stick with him. This relates to â€Å"About a Boy† as the main character, Marcus begins to spend time with Will even though everyone says that Will is not a good influence on him. Why do characters like Gene or Marcus seek friendship with people who are complete opposites if them? I believe that they seek friendship with opposite personalities because they both have low self esteem and seek amity through others. The beach was hours away by bicycle, forbidden, completely out of all bounds. Going there risked expulsion, destroyed the studying I was going to do for an important test the next morning, blasted the reasonable amount of order I wanted to maintain in my life, and it also involved the kind of long, laboured bicycle ride I hated. ‘Alright,’ I said. † P. 52Once again, in this passage Finny convinces Gene into doing something he knows is wrong; Phineas convinces Gene into biking off school bounds to the beach to spend the day. What is the reason for Gene not being able to just say no to Finny? How does Finny have such a strong influence on Gene? This passage is an Intratexual Connection because is connects to the passage on p. 34 where Finny convinced Gene into doing something else he thought was wrong, jumping off of a tree into a river. This connects to â€Å"About a Boy† as Will becomes such a strong influence in Marcus’ life that he begins to change his mannerisms (listening to different music, wearing more stylish clothes) and begins to make more friends at school because of it. â€Å"This didn’t seem completely crazy imagination in 1942, when jumping out of trees stood for abandoning a torpedoed ship. Later, in the school swimming pool, we were given the second stage in the rehearsal: after you hit the water you made big splashes with your hands, to scatter the flaming oil which would be on the surface. † P. 84As Gene speaks with Finny over the phone, he thinks about how much the school had changed and how almost everything revolves around the war. The private school had become engulfed with the fear of the war, and almost every boy was getting ready to be shipped out to Europe to fight for their country; the school’s responsibility was to get the students physically prepared rather than teach them an education. Gene, who isn’t very athletic and excels in academics becomes seems frustrated with the drastic change. This passage is Intertextual because in history class I read that in many countries, high school students would go through training for when they were shipped out to battle in WWII. I wonder if Gene enjoys the changes that have happened at Devon. The passage relates to â€Å"About a Boy† as both Gene and Marcus feel out of place in their schools, and have trouble adapting to their new environments. â€Å"Fear seized my stomach like a cramp. I didn’t care what I said to him now; it was myself I was worried about. For if Leper was psycho it was the army which had done it to him, and I and all of us were on the brink of the army. † P. 144In this passage, Gene goes to visit his friend Leper, who deserted the army after suffering hallucinations. Gene listens to Lepers stories about his experience and realizes that his friend has become mentally unstable and begins to fear for himself and his friends at school who will join the army once the year is over. Gene also seems to fear for his old friend Leper who left school early in order to join the army, Gene feels that Leper is too unstable to be left alone and is afraid that Leper might harm himself. This passage is Intertextual as I learned from the book â€Å"5th Business† that soldiers who come back from war are never the same, both mentally and physically due to the harsh living conditions in the trenches and the constant sight of death. I wonder if Leper suffered from â€Å"shell shock†, a common mental disorder of war veterans. This also relates to â€Å"About a Boy† as Marcus begins to worry for his mother who becomes mentally unstable and attempts suicide, Will begins to fear that his mother will try again and is convinced that he cant leave her alone. I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there. Only Phineas never was afraid, only Phineas never hated anyone. † P. 204In this passage, Gene speaks as his older self and reflects on the meaning of his experiences at Devon and then in the war. He suggests that every person, at a certain point in his or her life, decides that the world is a deeply hostile place and then finds enemies to fight with and kill. This passage is Intratextual as it mentions Gene’s â€Å"battle† involving Phineas and his accident and later on his tumble down the stairs at Devon which resulted in his death. I feel this relates to â€Å"About a Boy† as both Gene and the two main characters in â€Å"About a Boy† (Will and Marcus) fight their own â€Å"demons† throughout the book: Gene with his love/hate relationship with his best friend, Will with his efforts to fit in at school and stop the bullying, and Marcus with finally growing up and starting a serious relationship with a women. â€Å"I found it. I found a single sustaining thought. The thought was, You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. . . . I felt better. Yes, I sensed it like the sweat of relief when nausea passes away; I felt better. We were even after all, even in enmity. The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all. † P. 98 In this passage, Gene slowly becomes conscious of the incredible bitterness and envy that he feels toward Finny, who is a much better athlete, has a much stronger personality, and can talk his way out of any trouble. Gene begins to develop a strategy for coping with this anger: he tells himself that Finny feels exactly the same way, convincing himself that just as he envies Finny’s athleticism so must Finny envy Gene’s academic achievements. This is an Intratextual Connection as is connects back to the fact that these two characters are complete opposites, and even though they seem to be best friends there is a â€Å"deadly rivalry† between them in Gene’s eyes. I wonder if Gene is just imagining all of these things, maybe Phineas really is just a pure human being and wants the best for both of them. He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he. I couldn’t stand this. . . . Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, nnatural thud. † P. 120Here, Gene and Phineas are at the top of the tree where they do their usual jump into the river, Gene realizes that Finny never had any hatred towards him. Gene shifts his weight, which puts Finny off balance as he falls off the branch and injures his leg, leaving him a cripple. This quote is an Intratextual connection as it connects back to Gene’s obsessive thoughts about Finny constantly trying to sabotage his academics by convincing him to leave the school all the time. I wonder if Gene subconsciously shook the branch on purpose as he realized that Phineas was simply a better person than him, causing Gene to feel angry and act irrationally. By crippling Finny, Gene felt as if he would win their â€Å"battle† as Finny would loose his athleticism and charisma. â€Å"Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,† and I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas. † P. 133Here, Gene gets a surprise phone call from the hospitalized Phineas. Finny asks how school was going and which teams he joined. Gene replies by telling Finny that he joined the rowing team†¦ as a manager. Finny tells Gene that he must compete in sports for him because of his crippling accident. This passage is Intratextual Connection because it refers to Phineas’ accident as he is unable to compete in sports anymore. Finny wants Gene to compete for him letting Finny live through his best friend Gene. I wonder if Gene will start competing in sports instead of being the guy on the sidelines.