How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
He needed me. I was the least trustworthy person he had ever met. I knew that; he knew or should know that too. I had even told him. I had told him. But there was no mistaking the shield of remoteness in his face and voice. He wanted me around. The war then passed away from me, and dreams of enlistment and escape and a clean start lost their meaning for me (8.45).
Gene may have stopped himself from enlisting, but by staying he's joined another kind of war, a war of his own making, having to do with Finny. (Against Finny, or with Finny? Tell us what you think.)
Quote #8
Phineas recaptured that magic gift for existing primarily in space, one foot conceding briefly to gravity its rights before spinning him off again into the air. It was his wildest demonstration of himself, of himself in the kind of world he loved; it was his choreography of peace (9.63).
Gene's description reflects the way in which he makes himself and Finny into a dichotomy of warlike enmity and peaceful amity.
Quote #9
That night I made for the first time the kind of journey which later became the monotonous routine of my life; traveling through unknown countryside from one unknown settlement to another. The next year thus became the passing dominant activity, or rather passivity, of my army career, not fighting, not marching, but this kind of nighttime ricochet; for as it turned out I never got to the war (10.1).
The idea of Gene constantly traveling but never fighting is an apt one – he's essentially looking for the enemy soldiers but is unable to find them. So he picks something, or someone, to be his enemy. Like Finny.