In the novel A Separate Peace, Gene jounces the tree because he believes he has a better athletic ability than Finny and he should be up there instead.
Friday, March 19, 2010
F. Scott Fitzgerald "Tree Limb"
Topic Sentences
Why does Gene jounce the limb?
Gene decides to jounce the limb because he is frustrated with Finny for sidetracking him when he should have been studying.
Topic Sentence of John Keats
Walt Whitman's Topic Sentence
Hardy's Topic Sentence:
Chinua Achebe's Topic Sentence
Frost's Topic Sentence
Gene is led to the decision of jouncing the tree Finny is on because of the emotional and social tension between both boys.
Coleridge best topic sentence
Ms. Cohen's Best Topic Sentence
Robert Browning Topic Sentence
Gene is tired of envying Finny and hopelessly attempts to end their "friendship".
Sherwood’s best topic sentence
Paraphrase- What causes Gene to act without thinking up on the tree limb?
• Topic Sentence: Gene jounces the tree because his envy towards Finny makes him do things he doesn’t want to do.
Paul Muldoon's Topic Sentence
In the novel “A Separate Peace”, Gene jounces the tree because he believes he as a better athletic ability than Finny and he should be up there instead.
TOPIC SENTENCE
Langston Hughes Topic Sentence
Hawthorne's Topic Sentence II
Gene knocks Finny out of the tree because he does not want to constantly be overshadowed by him.
Hemingway Topic Sentence
Mark Twain's Topic Sentence
William Blake's Topic Sentence
When Gene jounced the limb, he had no time to think of any reason or emotion behind doing this action.
Percy Shelley topic sentence
Nabokov's topic sentence
Joseph Conrad's Topic sentence
Dickens: Why does Gene jounce the tree limb?
Gene jounces the tree limb because he feels that Finny is perfect.
Kerouac's topic sentence for why does Gene jounce the tree limb.
Ms. Cohen's Best Topic Sentence
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Ms. Cohen's Top Five
Eliot
Shelley
Hemingway
Capote
Keats
I've read them all, and commented on about half. Keep checking back for your comment/grade.
I am NOT Shelley.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Paul Muldoon
Frosts "THE TRUTH"
The truth is how Gene feels socially inferior to Phineas and has a sense of envy towards Phineas. His envy of Phineas overpowers their feeling of friendship to the point where they are not truly friends anymore.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Walt Whitman's "Truth"
On page 48, the truth is that there is a big rivalry and tension between Gene and Phineas. When Gene says, “Perhaps I was stopped by the level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth.” He was saying that behind his personal feelings, is the real truth with no ones opinions or bias. With this in mind, Gene knows what is going on. But he is not able to get out of Phineas’s grasp over him or his influence. Another good example is when Finny breaks the a record and doesn’t want to tell anyone about it except for Gene, he says, “‘By the way’ he said in an even more subdued voice, ‘we aren’t going to talk about. It’s just between you and me. Don’t say anything about it to… anyone.’… ‘You are too good to be true.’… ‘Thanks a lot,’ in a somewhat expressionless voice. (p. 48)
"THE TRUTH" by Truman Capote
The truth is referring to Gene’s sense of inferiority to his clearly superior friend, Phineas. Phineas gets away with everything. He disgraces his school tie by wearing it as a belt, he jumps off the tree, and he even wears a pink shirt in public. It is not only his athletic ability, but also his tendency to get out of trouble and to have a general cool way of talking. The truth is that Gene hates Phineas inside but needs to stay with him to keep up his own popularity. He is living a lie to just to keep his public appearance up. He has no idea what it is like to be a leader and to rule his own life with his own decisions. As long as the truth stays unexposed he will never experience a real friendship, or a real life.
THE TRUTH by John Keats
A small episode at the beginning of the summer shows how Gene inflicts pressure on himself, because of Phineas. In this event, Phineas, Gene, and some friends go to a tall tree from which they can jump from into a river. However, not one child their age has ever jumped off the tree, because it was scary. Phineas gets the idea to jump off the tree and is the first person his age to jump off the tree. Right after Phineas jumps, Gene starts to climb the tree immediately without Phineas pressuring him. However, Gene tells the reader that the tree gave him a “sensation of alarm.” This shows that Gene did not want to jump off the tree. Gene inflicts pressure on himself, because of Phineas and jumps off the tree.
Later, Phineas and Gene would jump off the tree every day to initiate a meeting of the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session group. Gene says that he “hated it” and that every time he was about to jump he would get a “flash of disbelief.” However, not once, did Phineas ever inflict major peer pressure on Gene nor did Gene not jump, for he would have “lost face with Phineas”, which was “unthinkable.” This shows that Phineas is not the “proper” person for Gene, because Phineas popularity makes Gene do things he does not want to.
"The Truth" By Langston Hunges
“The Truth” By Langston Hughes
The truth to which Gene refers to is his feeling of friendship toward Finny. Finny forthrightly stated that Gene was his best friend even though at Devon Academy this statement is considered “social suicide”. This is considered “social suicide” because at an all boys academy these feelings are not cool to most of the boys. Gene is unable to tell his true feelings that he is also best friends with Finny. This truth is a difficult one for Gene to come out with because of his great admiration to be cool with his other friends.
The truth
Nathaniel Hawthorne
On the last page of the third chapter, Phineas says something bold and unexpected. He says to Gene that he is his best friend. This, at an all boys’ boarding school, is considered suicide. However, Gene wants to say the same thing in return, but the truth held him back. The truth was that Finny was not his best friend. Gene envies Finny. Every time the thought of envy pops into his mind. Gene convinces himself that it’s completely normal to envy your best friend. However, if the thought of your friend having something you don’t makes one genuinely upset, then the person you envy cannot possibly be that good of a friend.
Theodore Dreiser's "the truth"
Joseph Conrad: 'the truth'
The Truth by Chinua Achebe
"Let's go to the beach."
Then Gene thought to himself: The beach was hours away by bicycle, forbidden, completely out of all bounds. Going there risked expulsion, destroyed all 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, labored bicycle I hated.
Then suddenly after thinking all that Gene just says, "All right."
The Truth by Thomas Hardy
James Baldwin Truth
F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Truth"
The Truth, by George Eliot
Truth
"The Truth" by Arthur Miller
What is "the truth" to which Gene refers
in the last line of the chapter?
Jack Kerouac's interpetation on "The Truth of Gene"
“The Truth” on page 48, is although Finny claims that Gene and him are best friends, they are actually rivals. An example of their rivalry was Gene’s envy of Finny. An example of Gene envying Finny is on page 40, “Right from the start, It was clear no one had ever been better adapted to a sport than Finny was to blitzball. I saw that right away. Why not? He had made it up hadn’t he? It needn’t be surprising that he was sensationally good at it, and the rest of us were more or less bumblers in our own different ways.” The words “no one,” “better adapted,” “saw that,” “sensationally good,” “rest of us,” and “bumblers,” shows Gene’s envy of Finny. The phrase “no one,” shows how Finny was different than everyone else. The fact that finny was “better adapted,” showed how he was envious of finny. This idea of being better suited showed how Gene thought Finny was naturally prepared for a game as random as blitzball. When Gene sees right away that Finny was adapted to blitzball it shows how takes notice to everything about Finny. When one is envious of another person they take notice to everything they do and their traits because he cares about what they do. The fact that Gene a 16-year-old boy would describe another 16-year-old boy as sensationally good shows how he envies Finny. This is envy is unhealthy to any kind of close friendship. The words “rest of us,” show how much better Finny was than everyone else. Since Finny was better than everyone else Gene got envious of him. The fact that Gene referred to himself as a “bumbler,” shows how he is envious of Finny to an unhealthy point. No 16-year-old boy would call himself a bumbler unless they were envious of someone else. Another example of their rivalry is how Finny tries to impress Gene. An example of Finny trying to impress Gene is on page 44, “ Was he trying to impress me or something? Not tell anybody? When he had broken a school record with out a day of practice? I knew he was serious about it, so I didn’t tell anybody.” The idea that Finny was trying to impress Gene by beating the swimming record with out telling anyone shows how he cared what Gene thought about him. Furthermore he did impress Gene by breaking the record. The fact that he did not want Gene to tell anybody shows how Finny only cared that Gene saw him do it. It also showed how Finny wanted to show that he was not self-conscious and did not care about what other people thought about him. However it is an oxymoron because he does care that Gene saw him break the record. The fact that he broke a school record was very impressive too and Gene must have been amazed. Furthermore he did it without a day of practice, which must of really impressed Gene.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Percy Shelley "Gene's Truth"
The Truth
The truth is that Finny looks up to Gene as the cool kid. (Page 46) “Finny now felt he had to keep me entertained.” Finny then follows to tell amazing stories. He is trying to impress Gene. When Finny says they are the best friends it catches Gene off guard because Gene feels that Finny is the cool kid and that he should be asking Finny to be his best friend no the other way around.
Henry James' thoughts
On the last page of chapter three, Gene and Finny are sitting on the beach, drinking beer and talking to each other. Finny tells Gene that he is his best pal. After Finny tells Gene this, Gene has no response he is speechless. In his mind though Gene wants to tell Finny that he is his best friend, but is held back from telling Finny. The reason as to why is because Gene is possibly having second thoughts about being friends with Finny. Even though he thinks to himself to tell Finny, he never actually does. The truth is that Gene is not fully committed to being Finny’s best friend.
Lewis Carroll
On pg. 48, the last page of Chapter 3, Finny tells Gene that they are best pals. At the last paragraph, Gene tries to create a response but is unable to. He is stopped from responding because of his interpretation of the truth. The truth is that h could not tell that because “Exposing a sincere emotion nakedly like that at the Devon School was the next thing to suicide.” He new that telling these things were not considered cool and he wanted to maintain being friends with one of the most popular kids in the school. The truth to Gene is that he is also surprised to hear what Finny said. He didn’t expect to here Finny say this. He was surprised that he even went on a trip this illegal. After Finny says this, Gene as so many mixed emotions, he has no clue how to respond, so, he stays quiet and doesn’t respond.
Charles Dicken's Post
The Truth
In the novel A Separate Peace, the writer uses his characters actions to portray his thoughts on the situation at hand. At the end of the chapter on page 48, one of his characters, Gene mentions “the truth”. Gene hides the truth from his best friend Finny. Gene realizes that his life at the school and with Finny is a lie in itself. The truth is that Gene doesn’t like Finny as a friend, but only because he is one of the most popular kids in the school.
Ernest Hemingway's "The Truth"
Samuel Coleridge
Friday, March 12, 2010
Weekend Writing Assignment
The writing assignment for this weekend is posted on the Browning website, but here are some additional guidelines/reminders:
1. The writing you post on this blog is PUBLIC. Consider how much we laughed at/ struggled to read the posts that were rife with spelling errors and grammar-related issues.
2. The writing you post on this blog should reflect your BEST work. Everything you have learned this year about writing should be visible in what you post. (So, every paragraph should include...)
3. It might be an idea to draft your answer in a Word document, edit it, and then post it to the blog. Just a gentle, non-coercive statement from your English teacher.
Take a risk,
Ms. C