Quackenbush

Name: Cliff Quackenbush
Age: 17
Description: Tough, bantam body

In the story, Cliff Quackenbush is a bully who is not like by many. This is especially true for Gene, as shown by the fight that they got into.


Symbolism: For the symbolism with Gene, I used a bomb. With Quackenbush I used fire, because he is like a flame near Gene that makes Gene want to explode.

Analysis: The fact that no one has liked Quackenbush since he arrived on the campus at Devon is the probable reason for him taking out his anger on anyone who seemed lower then himself. The fight between Gene and Quackenbush, was the result of: Quackenbush's ignorance, his ego, Gene's situation, and of Gene putting his guilt into the form of anger and acting on it. This is shown in these quotes. "I even sympathized with his trembling, goaded egotism". "... it wasn't the words he said which angered me. It was only that he was so ignorant...".

Character-Theme-Tie-In: Quackenbush is a character that helps Gene's theme of, the actions and words of a man reveal his true heart, be seen more clearly. Because Quackenbush is rude towards Gene, again you see Gene showing his character. It is shown when Gene punches Quackenbush, and the fight begins.

Gene

Name: Gene Forrester
Age: 17
Height: 5 foot 8 inches
Weight: 140 lbs.

Gene is a student at a prep school called Devon. He is best friends with an athlete named Phineas, even though they are completely opposite, because Finny is calm and selfless and Gene is paranoid and selfish. Gene always over thinks things, which causes him to draw conclusions that seem possible to him, but in reality are actually far from the truth. He is one of the better students at Devon, and Chet Douglas seems to be his only rival in that area. As time goes on in the book, Gene seems to be less accepted by the other students because of the suspicion that Gene is the reason for Phineas breaking his leg and leaving Devon for awhile.

Symbolism: Gene is like a bomb that could go off at any moment. He has so many things going through his head and has no idea what to do with all of it, and this causes him to think irrationally.

Analysis: Gene is overly aware of everything, and yet completely oblivious at the same time. An example of this is when Gene says this about Phineas: "You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. You did hate him... but so what? He hated you...". This all came from Gene getting a poor grade on a test because he went to a meeting with Finny. Gene is so obsessed with this competition between him and Finny that does not even exist, that he breaks Finny's leg. This makes him more obsessed with just about everything that he can relate to with his guilt, that he seems to forget how important Finny really is to him until nearly the end of the story. "My aid alone had never seemed to him in the category of help. The reason for this occurred to me... Phineas had thought of me as an extension of himself". If Gene could have seen the flaws in his own thinking, he could have prevented the chain of action that eventually led to the death of his best friend.

Character-Theme-Tie-IN: Gene, being the main character is of course going to be a part of one of the book's themes. The theme, the actions and words of a man reveal his true heart, is shown in Gene more than in any other character in the story, because we see both what Gene is thinking, and how he acts. Throughout the story, we see that both Gene's thought's and actions show that there is something wrong with him. When Gene jounces the limb and Finny breaks his leg is the perfect example of that, because at that point his thoughts pushed him to do something cruel to his own best friend.