The revision of Truman Capote's paragraph on the tone of the winter term at the Devon school.

The tone of the winter term for Gene is very fearful of what Finny will think of him. All day Gene can only think about his so called friend Finny who he knows he pushed off of the tree. Although he no longer has to see him and pretend to have a different life because of him, he is anticipating terrible things from Finny’s arrival back at Devon. He knows that many of the things he is doing would not go well with Finny. An example of this is when Gene tries out for the crew manager. He tells Finny about this and he gets very angry saying things like, “what do you want to do crew for? What do you want to manage for? What’s that got to do with sports?” Although this shows Finny’s extreme influence and care on what Gene does, the best example of Gene living in fear of Finny’s opinion is when Gene wants to go to war, but does not because of Finny.

“Why go through the motions of getting an education and watch to war slowly chip away at the one thing I had loved here, the peace, the measureless, careless peace of the Devon summer? Others. The Quackenbushes of this world, could calmly watch the war approach them and jump into it at the last and most advantageous instant, as though buying into the stock market. But I couldn’t… He looked up with a provocative grin, ‘Hi pal, where’s the brass band?’ Everything that had happened throughout the day faded like the first false snowfall of the winter.”
Pg. 101-102

In this paragraph, Gene really wants to go to war. He gets himself completely ready mentally and is excited to leave. Once Finny comes in he knows there is no way he will be able to go to war. He describes as if it “faded like the first false snowfall of the winter.” This shows that after seeing Finny there was not even a minor thought of going to war. It was out of the realm of possible and he would never be able to consider it again. Finny makes it very difficult and almost impossible for Gene to leave by saying such nice and friendly words like “Hi pal.” By saying this, Finny lures Gene in by making him feel so guilty for causing Finny’s fall off the tree. Gene is forced to stay there, with Finny, for the rest of his time at Devon. From the outside and the least deep part of their relationship, it seems as if a friend has been reunited with another friend and that Gene must stay faithful to his “best friend.” This is clearly the start of a chain of events where Gene will pretend to be friends with Finny, until he finally says no.