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.