It was a hot and humid summer, while World War Two was in progress. The summer
holidays was the time when all the friends were together at the Devon School.
The students at this school were enjoying themselves either studying, doing
leisure activities or just relaxing under the hot sun. One special group of
friends usually played lacrosse throughout the summer but this activity became
obsolete with newer things. Phineas the daring athlete told his group of friends
to follow him. He led them to a tall tree by the river. Phineas slowly climbed
up the tree, not thinking about the height or the danger of falling from the
tree. As Phineas stood on the branch, he jumped cautiously making a sharp dive
into the muddy river. He encouraged the others to jump too, but everyone refused
from great freight. Then Phineas really pressured Gene a lonely intellectual
into jumping off the tree. Gene tried to refuse but he wasn’t strong enough.
Gene felt like he had no choice, so he climbed the tree and slowly jumped into
the river once he was at the top. As he landed, he smiled and enjoyed the thrill
of that experience. After Gene came out of the river he was praised by everyone
around because of his bravery. Phineas and Gene were room mates at this all male
school and their relationship as friends was getting stronger each day because
Gene admired Phineas for his bravery and Phineas admired Gene because he
listened to him. Phineas decided to make a club called the Super Suicide Society
of the Summer Session. Every night these members of the club met in a private
area and they talked about the next day, sports, but mostly about the war.
Further on during the novel Gene became more like Phineas. Phineas was always
late for classes and never serious which meant trouble. Phineas was against the
fighting that was occurring over seas because many young men were dying. Finny a
friend to Phineas and Gene was an excellent skier. The Army needed people like
Finny, so Finny considered joining the war. This upset Phineas because he
didn’t want his friends or anyone to join the bloody war. One day Gene and
Phineas went to the tree again. As the two stood at the top of the tree, Gene
pushed Phineas into the river. Instead of falling into the river, Phineas fell
on the muddy ground beside the river. The next week Gene went to visit Phineas
at the hospital. Phineas didn’t feel that Gene was responsible for the fall
that he had but Gene felt that he was. Almost a month went by and Phineas came
back to school. All his friends welcomed his return. That night the friends
talked about the war, and Phineas couldn’t take the opinions the others had
about the war. He angrily stormed off with his crutches. As Phineas was going
down the stairs, he fell and hurt his leg again. Phineas was taken to the
hospital. This time the Doctors had to amputate his leg. As the operation was
under going Phineas’ heart stopped because he had too much morphine for his
pains. At Phineas’ funeral Gene felt like he was responsible for Phineas’
death. Days had gone by and Gene wanted to get away from the Devon School, since
it brought far too many bad memories. He enlisted into the army to join Finny
and many other’s.