Rgh Drft Otln Finny

Troy Kariniemi

HP English 10

Critical Essay Rough Outline

Hour 3

Jan. 27, 2009

Intro: At Devon School, New England, as summer gives way to winter, things that show hard reality’s presence, begin to take place. Many of the boys are harmed by these events in some way, but Finny seems to be immune to all this.

Major Claim: Finny uses a controlled filter of illusion to slowly, harmlessly absorb the hard facts of the things occurring at Devon School.

I. Finny slowly allows the fact of war’s presence come to him as to minimize the mental effects of realization. 

A. Finny  blatantly denies that there is a war on.

1. Finny, not wanting to lose Gene to the Army, denies its existence, and      Gene, as a friend, stays back with him.

B. Leper;s note, which Finny silently read, hinted at what reality had in store for      him, but Finny didn’t admit its meaning.

C. In the hospital, after thought, Finny realizes and accepts war as a fact, and that  

    his leg makes him useless in war; he stays calm.

Warrant. Finny’s blatant denial is the shock absorber. His “shields” are up, and he doesn’t want ot lose Gene, so he expresses his illusion story of fat men to Gene, who accepts it. After the first tangible evidence shows up, Leper’s letter, he has time to ponder it slowly. He does it by the time he goes to the hospital, and by the time Gene visits him, he admits that his leg is useless in war and that there is a war. He is calm in saying it, which shows his mild acceptance of the fact that wouldv’e hurt him before.

II. Finny allows the truth of the cause of his broken leg to come in little by little, ad to protect himself from mental trauma. 

A. Finny point-blank refuses Gene’s confession as to why his leg is broken.

1. Gene, intending to shed light on Finny, goes to visit Finny in Boston, and upon  

  hearing Gene’s confession, he blatantly refuses to accept it.

B. The “trial” with Brinker exposes the truth fully to Finny.

1. Finny, during the trial, realizet th truth of the matter and what it’s about, is horrified, and storms out venhemently denying it. 

C. At the hospital, visiting Gene, Finny and Gene come to conclude that it was not Gene’s fault, but something ignorant in the heart.

Warrant: Again, Finny puts up the initial shield for defense. He uses it as the shock absorber. Then, a while later, the trial comes up and catches him unprepared. His scenario was to erect a shield of illusion about the truth, to protect him. After the fall, he goes to the hospital and has time to think about the trial and what Gene had told him in Boston. When Gene visits, Finny and Gene conclude that it couldn’t have been Gene’s fault, because that wouldv’e been too painful, a traitor as a former friend. Their conclusion may have been true, but the effort stands as an illusion shield.