Symbolism In A Separate Piece By John Knowles

A Separate Piece is a novel that was written by John Knowles in the late 1900s. Throughout this novel, the author uses symbolism to bring not only connections but a bigger meaning to certain things. In this book, the three most important symbols used are the three staircases and World War II, which is the world that was happening at the same time everything happening in the novel was. The tree was brought into the book in the beginning and was overall the main action why the main characters Gene and Finny were able to get such a strong friendship so fast. They chose together to break the rules so that they could have fun. Being able to face their fears and be more carefree brought them to also have more trust in each other. An example of this is when Gene first jumped out of the three he says” we were a nest of friends at that moment”, this was because Gene allowed Finny to see when his life and health are at rs and put all of that trust in him. This is important because, without these times when they did this there, friendship would not be as strong, as fast. While throughout almost the entire book the tree was seen as a positive symbol one later action changed that is when Gene was the reason that Finny fell out of the tree, losing all ability to reach the goals he had always dreamed of. After

Later in life when Gene went and visited Devon School along with the tree, this was the other place that he was sure to see. This staircase was the cause of not only the death of his best friend but the reason why even at the end of Finnys life he was not able to still be friends and close with Gene. Finny was mad at Gene, for pushing him down the stairs, and Gene was not able to say anything and had to live with knowing he was the reason that Finny died and lost everything. When he sees these staircases it puts a picture in the reader's head of Gene making one of his biggest