Throughout the story, Phineas and Gene, the two main characters, showed a number of contrasting traits. Phineas was a confident, non competitive, naive, irresponsible, and unintelligent person throughout the story, whereas Gene, Phineas' roommate, was insecure, competitive, mature, responsible, and intelligent throughout the story.

Phineas had a confident nature in everything he did. As Phineas and Gene first met, they noticed they were both the same height, but Phineas, being confident, said, "Where did you get that dizzy shirt?"(100). Only a person with extreme confidence could have insulted someone they just met because the other person could have easily struck back to cause a conflict, but Phineas' confident nature helped him get through the situation as he laughed his way through the conversation. Another example which showed Phineas' confidence occurred during a conversation he had with Gene. Even though Phineas did not know Gene, he felt perfectly comfortable talking about his sexual history. The author explained what Phineas was talking about as he stated, " He had experienced it three times, and gave detailed, completely matter-of-fact and unboastful accounts of all three."(101).

If Phineas was not a confident person, he would not have shared his story with a complete stranger. Gene, on the other hand, was a very insecure person. The reader was able to see Gene's insecurities when he first tried to have a conversation with Phineas. His roommate was being very explicit in revealing the stories of his past, but when it came for Gene's turn to tell his stories he felt his "ideas would have been as dull as catechism after his;"(101). If Gene was confident, he would have been comfortable in partaking in the

Phineas and Genes' personality also differed in the area of maturity. Phineas was a very naive boy whose every move was very innocent and harmless. An example of Phineas being naive occurred when Gene was describing the acts that Phineas performed innocently where no one could cut him down, but if another person committed the same acts they would instantly be ridiculed. Gene explained how for all Phineas' acts, " felling them was unthinkable."(102). This proved that Phineas was naive because for a person to commit such acts, they must have an innocent attitude, which Phineas obviously had. Gene also explained how "Phineas was the essence of this careless peace." This quote explained how Phineas must have an inner peace within himself that is emerged to others, therefore his actions are passed as innocent games. Phineas may be innocent and naive, but Gene proved to be somewhat mature for his age. One occasion where Gene proved to be mature occurred when he admitted to himself that he almost started to like Phineas as he stated, "I almost liked him, even"(105). For one to admit they like the person who they are trying their hardest to hate takes maturity as the person is forfeiting their opinions to try and make a clean slate and be a better person, which is exactly what Gene did in this case.

conversation between him and his roommate. Another example displaying Gene's insecure nature occurred after Phineas ridiculed him for his choice of shirt. After a small argument between the two, Gene gave in and admitted to himself that his shirt was dizzy by saying, " It was right"(103) when replyin

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Approximate Word count = 1436
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)