Quote 4
"What makes you so special? Why should you get it and all the rest of us be in the dark?"
The momentum of the argument abruptly broke from his control. His face froze. "Because I've suffered," he burst out (8.103-4).
This questions the notion of Gene growing older and wiser while Finny remains left behind in a world of youth. It reminds us that, in some ways, Finny has learned lessons that Gene has not.
Quote 5
"I just fell," his eyes were vaguely on my face, "something jiggled and I fell over. I remember I turned around and looked at you, it was like I had all the time in the world. I thought I could reach out and get hold of you."
I flinched violently away from him. "To drag me down too!" (5.25-6).
As their identities continue to mesh, Gene begins to identify elements of himself – and not such nice elements, at that – in Phineas.
Quote 6
"If a war can drive somebody crazy, then it's real all right. Oh I guess I always knew, but I didn't have to admit it" (11.84).
Here we see another example of Finny's rules. His fantasy world, in which there was no war or enmity, turned out to be precariously balanced on his delicate system of principles.