Summary
The school year draws to a close, and Gene's class graduates.
The school donates its Far Common quadrangle to the military for
a parachute riggers' school. Gene watches from his window as the army
drives in at the beginning of summer to occupy it. Brinker takes
Gene down to the Butt Room to meet his father, who expresses his
wish that he were younger, so that he could fight in the war. He chokes
back his distaste at hearing Gene's plans to avoid the danger of
the infantry by joining the navy and Brinker's decision to join
the coast guard. He lectures them on the importance of serving their country
honorably, saying that their lives will be defined in large part
by what they do in the war. He leaves, and Brinker apologizes
for his father's attitude, denouncing the older generation for causing
the war and then expecting the younger generation to fight it. He
goes to finish packing and Gene walks to the gym to clean out his
locker. He finds a platoon of parachute riggers in the locker room
and watches the men as they prepare to go to the playing fields
to do calisthenics. Gene knows that he will soon take part in the
same sort of regimentation, but he is glad that it will not take
place for him at Devon.
Gene now speaks again from the perspective of his older
self. He says that he never killed anyone during his time in the
military—that his war was fought at Devon and that it was there
that he killed his enemy. Everyone, he says, finds themselves pitted
violently against something in the world at some point in their
lives; everyone realizes that there is something in the world that
is hostile to them, and they are never the same after that realization.
For his classmates, Gene says—for Brinker and Leper and Quackenbush—this
realization came with the war. Each found ways of defending himself
against it, by either adopting a stance of careless unconcern, descending
into insanity, or treating others with a bullying anger. Only
Finny, Gene reflects, never sensed the existence of an enemy to
fight; thus it was that Finny was never afraid and never hated anyone.
Finny alone, he muses, understood that the perceived enemy might
not be an enemy at all.
Analysis
The novel ends on an appropriately dark note, as the war
invades Devon. Although the characters have felt the war descending
upon the school throughout the book, the incursion is literal this
time, as soldiers set up camp on the campus. However, for Gene and
his classmates, the abstract notions that one would expect to accompany
the war—honor and glory—have drained away, leaving only an adolescent
cynicism. Those leaving Devon for the army make fun of the parachute
riggers, whose sewing machines make them seem slightly absurd, even
as the boys themselves make plans to do whatever is necessary to
avoid active combat. Even Brinker, who had wanted to enlist early
on, has now decided to join the coast guard, which will keep him
a safe distance from any real action. Everyone now unconsciously
echoes Finny's belief that the war is a conspiracy of the old against
the young, and they resolve not to be “taken in.” Brinker's father,
with his talk of pride and duty and serving one's country, seems
indeed to personify Finny's fat, old men, which Brinker and the
others are quick to recognize. “He and his crowd are responsible
for [the war]!” Brinker declares. “And we're going to fight it!”
Brinker expresses the general disillusionment of his classmates,
a disillusion that has stemmed partly from their knowledge of Leper's fate,
partly from their despair over Finny's death, and partly from the
fear associated with the end of the waiting period and beginning of
their real involvement in the war. But Gene, in these final pages, does
not share in the boys' disillusionment, for he has achieved a higher
insight. Due to the narrative structure of the novel, it is difficult
to discern whether Gene first comes to these understandings during
the time period narrated or whether he only now, older, arrives
at them. In any case, the narrating Gene now explains the insight
that has allowed him to understand the war as something deeper and
more firmly rooted in the human condition. To Gene, war is not merely
the expression of a few old men's selfishness; rather, war emerges
out of a profound and toxic ignorance in the human heart—an ignorance
that causes one to seek out an enemy and to see the world as a hostile
place.
Gene thus introduces the final metaphorical meaning of
the novel's wartime backdrop: World War II represents man's need
for a personal war—for a personal enemy—to defend against and kill. Part
of growing up, Gene suggests, involves finding this enemy and losing
one's childhood illusion that the world is a fundamentally friendly
place. He goes through the list of characters and discusses how
each has reacted to this discovery of the “enemy”: Mr. Ludsbury
with arrogant disdain; Brinker with resentment; Leper with a surrender
to madness. Although Gene doesn't include himself on this list,
the reader remembers his earlier statement that he killed his enemy
while at Devon: the implication, of course, is that Finny was the
focus of his hatred, the enemy in his private war. The precise reason
for this enmity is never fully explained; nevertheless, from the story
as a whole we may conclude that it was quite a perverse hatred.
For it stemmed not from Gene's jealousy of his friend's accomplishments
but rather from his jealousy of Finny's goodness and innocence.
The novel closes with Gene reflecting on Finny's great
gift—his ability to remain innocent (“unfallen,” one might say),
see the world as a good, beneficent place, and never even imagine
the possibility of an enemy. The book's last lines leave us to wonder
if Finny's worldview—if what we consider the enemy is only a fabrication
of some profound ignorance in mankind's inner being—is ultimately
truer than that of the other characters. For if our hatred of others
stems from something intrinsic to the human heart, then sincere
friendships and peaceful societies will always be imperiled. If,
on the other hand, our animosities stem from ignorance, then perhaps
we may retain hope for our futures, both as individuals and as communities. Perhaps
we may have reason to hope that, given enough experience and reflection,
we may become better human beings.
