cause of an unsuccessful jump into the river, Finny cannot go to war and his feelings are simply that if he cannot be in the war, no one else can. The only way to prevent the other boys from participating in the war is to nullify it. Gene cannot be a part of something which does not exist. Thus, Finnys explanation of the nonexistence of war is created as a large curtain beneath which he can hide. Finny has no fear of war, but instead a jealousy that others will be to fight while he cannot. As the novel unfolds, the reader is watching the boys growing older and approaching the war. The enlistment of Leper (a fellow classmate) delivers the message; the war is real and the boys at Devon will soon participate in it. Leper himself is viewed as one of the two war casualties, Finny being the other. Dr. Stanpole views Finnys death as an accident, a horrible things which happens when the country is at war. He asks when talking to Gene, "Why did it have to happen to you boys so soon, here at Devon?" (Knowles p.185) He makes it perfectly clear that Finnys death has been caused by the effects of war on life at Devon. Indirectly it remains true that the war killed Finny. The book is a war novel from start to finish and the last chapter underlines this. The final section adds nothing to the significance already given to the book through Finnys death; instead, Knowles ties together loose ends and presents certain philosophical statements which further the readers understanding of the book. One of the things the novelist seems to be saying is that the "enemy" Gene killed and loved is the one every man must kill, his own youth, the innocence that burns too hot to be endured. (Macmillian p.98) Gene Forrester closes the novel by saying, "If I ever attacked at all; I was indeed the enemy." (Knowles p.196) Finny was able to cope with life, to sift the good from the mixture of good and bad, and he alone died. The horrible irony is that the person most fit fo...
