Trust

Gene is easily the pick for the character with trust issues, considering that he always seems to betray his loved ones. He becomes paranoid of Finny’s excellent athletic ability, making him vulnerable to hatred towards his “best friend.” As expected, Gene betrays Finny by jiggling the branch that he was standing on, allowing him to fall and shatter his leg. Gene begins his doubts about Finny when he believes that Finny is trying to ruin his chances of being the top rated student in his class.

Guilt

Again, Gene is the focus point of this truth about human nature. Once Dr. Stanpole gave Gene the details on Finny’s leg, a dangerous amount of guilt rushed through his body. He feels this guilt because he personally ruined Finny’s life, shutting off the only thing that he could actually excel at, athletics.

Realization

Finny is the main focus of this truth about human nature because of his realization towards the war. The war is a hard fact to face for Finny. This is made difficult by the fact that Devon school was completely isolated from the war, none of the students having physically been in the real thing, except for Leper. Leper was the main reason Finny finally believed there really was a war going on, pointing out that Leper’s mental and physical attitude changed entirely.