ASP - Ch. 11

"I felt, a sense of my own real authority and worth, I had had many new experiences and I was growing up" (156).

This right here contrasts the Gene we've known since we picked up the book. Primarily, Phineas was Gene's "authority". If Finny told Gene to jump (this can also be taken literally), Gene would ask how high. And a personality so submissive makes the reader doubt that Gene has any purpose or worth. In this quote, I believe he is finally finding himself. The fact that he concludes this by saying he was growing makes me smile. He has grown and the best part is that he knows it. Everyone encounters different situations from which they learn from and Gene is no different. Gene needed to do what he did to Finny, Quackenbush, and Leper to realize that he needed to mature. Fortunately, he is becoming a better person.

Did Leper smirk at Gene to provoke him in an attempt to seek revenge?

When Finny is explaining what happened that day, he goes from saying that Gene was not in the tree but then quickly changes his statements and telling them that Gene was in the tree with him. Why does he do this?