Chapter 7 Summary and Analysis

Gene, who now lives alone in his room, is paid a visit by Brinker Hadley. Brinker does not comprehend Gene’s struggles without Finny, and instead jokes about how Gene has all the luxurious room to himself now that Finny is injured and out. Brinker also implies that Gene masterminded the injury suffered by Finny, intentionally throwing him off the tree so that he gets the room to himself. Gene, uncomfortable with the situation, goes along with the joke and says that the “truth will out” at some point, to which Brinker agrees.

The two boys then go to the Butt Room, a room in the basement for the boys to smoke. There, Brinker continues with the joke of Finny’s accident being an intentional sabotage by Gene, and the rest of the boys question him about the accident as if Gene was in an interrogation. Gene, in order to diffuse the situation, plays along with the narrative that he was devious enough to plat Finny’s fall until the story reaches the part where the actual fall happens. Gene suddenly stops playing along and shifts the target of attention from himself to the youngest boy, asking him, “What did I do then?” The boy is unable to answer and Gene leaves the room. The other boys note that Gene came all the way to the Butt Room and did not smoke.

The war efforts have turned students into laborers as Gene, Brinker, Chet Douglass, Quackenbush and others volunteer to shovel the railroad tracks as many older men that were qualified for enlisting headed off to war. Leper Lepellier does not volunteer, but instead wanders around as a naturalist. Gene wants to know what Leper wants to do, but Leper merely says that he is touring and has no specific place in mind to go to. Once the boys clear the line, a train full of soldiers passes through. The soldiers hang out the windows and wave while the boys cheer them on. The rush and excitement from seeing the soldiers captures the boys, who soon think of enlisting. Brinker expresses his desire to enlist for the war the very next day, and Gene feels no different from Brinker. He heads back to his dorm with a plan to enlist for the war. The Gene that is usually guided by his sentiments now believes he has taken a decision devoid of it. He also realizes that Devon no longer feels like a warm place to him, the intimacy of the summer session long gone. Just as Gene becomes sure of his decision to enlist and enters his room, he finds Finny in the room, back in school.

Gene’s resolutions and his seemingly calm decisions get thrown off the window at the very sight of Finny, showing how much of an impact Finny has on Gene and how controlled by emotions and sentiments Gene is. Finny has colored Gene views and experience of the school, and he finds the idea of going to war far more exciting than living a peaceful life devoid of Finny.