Contrast the mood at Devon during the summer session and the fall

session.
Coinciding with the change in seasons, Devon awakens from its summer slumber
of carefree boyhood, after Finnys fall, to the cold, harsh and demanding realities of
the gray encroachment, of winter.
The hourglass turns, once the first leaf of autumn falls, and the sand,
Finnys life, begins to seep away. Unable to prevent the passage of time, the
change in seasons, and the daunting reality of war, Phineas is powerless to remain
suspended in the perfect bliss of a vivacious summer. Phineas, balancing on
the prow of the canoe like a river god, encompasses all the glory of the
summer; however as this perfect moment passes, reality hits only for Phineas to
tumble into the water. Finny, representing all purity and innocence, cannot
survive the bloodshed and destruction of war, thus Finny falls. The hourglass of
adolescence is completed, and the sand now, inverted, times Finnys end
in this harsh world. As Finny, the god of summer falls, peace deserts Devon with
the first fallen leaves; the summer session is over. The forces of one
hundred and sixty three winters reassemble, scattering the easy going summer
spirt; the streak of tolerance, from summer is expelled as laws become
stricter. Masters regard students with suspicion, seeming to feel that
anything done is potentially illegal, the atmosphere, during the decent into
fall, is stifling. Finnys fall marked the end of the Summer Session, and the
beginning of hardships, responsibilities and war.
Phineas, the immortal Huck, provides Gene and the others freedom from
responsibility, and expectations, however after his fatal fall, the reality of war
becomes more prominent in his absence. The carefree, lively summer had come
to an end, in the last long rays of daylight at the tree, when Phineas fell.
The imminent fall season thrusts the boys with responsibilities and expectations,
thus the mood at Devon becomes cold and calculative as the boys, once again,
compete for superiority. From being idiosyncratic, the official class leaders
and politicians could now be seen taking charge; they lost their freedom
from summer. In this Wintery Devon, reality exposes itself to the boys, thus
they speak of enlisting in the war earlier. The severe, intense atmosphere demands
the boys march to their fate; adolescence is forgotten in the expectations of
adulthood.
From a vivacious, lively, youthful, once upon a time ago summer, the boys must
now evolve into men accepting the bleak reality of war, which winter brings upon
them.