Symbolism In A Separate Peace

Ava Matias
Adolescence To Adulthood: Symbols of A Separate Peace
Focusing on the metaphorical journey from innocent adolescence to distressing adulthood, the novel, A Separate Peace, accompanies two young boys as they discover guilt, impotence, and change. The author, John Knowles, portrays two best friends, Gene and Finny, as foils for each other through their troubling times. The narrator, Gene, is visiting the Devon school, the place where his identity was formed, fifteen years after the main events in the novel. As he reminisces over his friendships and difficulties, he is reminded of his former best friend and roommate, who dies from injuries caused by Gene. The author uses symbols as a backdrop for developing the characters and the story.

The Devon River is a clear and clean river that the boys enjoy swimming in, which represents their exuberant and jovial innocence. However, the Naguamsett River is a dirty and repugnant river, which the adolescents avoid. “We had never used the lower river, the Naguamsett, during the summer. It was ugly, saline, fringed with marsh, mud, and seaweed,” (76). This river represents the harsh conditions the boys must accept in the real world and adulthood. Similar to the symbolism of the sessions of the school, the Devon and Nagusmasett Rivers figuratively represent a change from adolescence to adulthood. When Finny fell off the tree because Gene jounced on the limb, it was comparable to as if the Devon River turned into the Naguamsett. The rivers also delineate the main characters of the novel. The Devon River is where spirited and convivial activities took place, which is similar to how Finny is the epitome of affability and represents the model athlete and charismatic student. Unlike Finny, Gene is cynical and insincere, which can be compared to the Naguamsett River. The rivers at the Devon School are symbols of the novel as they represent growing up and the characters

In his memory, the tree is a “huge lone spike”(13) or an “artillery piece”(13), but when he sees it again it looks small and innocuous. Though the tree itself has not changed, Gene's perspective, which has changed over the years, is what is enabling him to face the tree without it haunting him. At the time of the incident, in his youth, the tree was a symbol of fear and forbidding. At the end of the novel, the tree has become a symbol of profound changes in perspective that time and growth can give people. “This was the tree, and it seemed to me standing there to resemble those men, the giants of your childhood, whom you encounter years later and find that they are not merely smaller in relation to your growth, but that they are absolutely smaller, shrunken by age….”(14). This notable symbol is the same tree that Gene jumped off of during the Super Suicide Society night meetings. Gene simultaneously faces his fears of the tree in his adolescence by jumping off the limb and in his adulthood by visiting the school. Even as the tree looms in his memory, as he has changed and grown over his life, he has faced his