The Naive vs. The Knowledgeable

" I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I even put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there. Only Phineas was never afraid, only Phineas never hated anyone.... All of them, all except Phineas, constructed at infinite cost to themselves these Maginot Lines against the enemy who never attacked that way - if he ever attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy"(Knowles 204). This quote, said by Gene, is suggesting that at some point in our lives, we will all face the reality that the world is an evil place, filled with wicked beings; we will, one day, have to fight those beings. Although the text never actually showed who Gene's enemy was, while we can assume that it was either Finny, or himself, he defeated it before he even went to war. On the other hand, Phineas never defeated his enemy, because he didn't have one. Throughout the novel Phineas was portrayed as an innocent person believing that everyone was just as nice as he thought they were; he basically lived in his own little world, which causes me to believe that because Phineas was so innocent, he lost his life: " 'Investigating Finny's accident!'.... 'Well then, I fell out of a tree.' 'Why?'.... 'Leper was always the type when it came to details... He could of cleared the whole thing up.'.... 'I just don't care.'... 'We haven't got all the facts!' 'You get all your facts!' I had never seen Finny crying, 'You collect every f----ing fact there is in the world!' He plunged out the doors"(168 - 177). This quote shows that Finny didn't want to hear how Gene pushed him off because he does not want to believe it; if he does then his world would end up being a lie. If you don't believe that you have any enemies, you won't have any enemies.