"The Devon faculty had never before experienced a student who combined a calm ignorance of the rules with a winning urge to be good, who seemed to love the school truly and deeply, and never more than when he was breaking the regulations, a model boy who was most comfortable in the truant's corner. The faculty threw up its hands over Phineas, and so loosened its grip on all of us."
I found this paragraph humorous, because Gene, in my opinion, is making fun of the fact that the school faculty believes every word Finny says when he's in trouble, and making up excuses as to why he is always late or breaking other school rules. It seems like he is mocking adult authority, by implying the adults are naive as well as gullible. He then puts Finny up on a pedestal by admiring the skill he has of getting himself and the other boys out of trouble. I can't tell if this admiration Gene has is sarcastic or genuine, but my hunch is that it's a secret sarcastic admiration, but at the same time a genuine one.
This reminds me of the Harry Potter book where he goes into the memory keeper thing and learns of how his father really was in school: a bully, rule-breaking and vain. He wonders how his mother could have ever married his "horrible" father.
ReplyDelete