Symbolism In Corasanti's The Almond Tree

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Authors utilize a myriad of objects in their books to symbolize importance in the story. By using an object or a person, authors can focus or concentrate their story around them to represent meaning throughout the story to help readers infer the central theme and idea of the text that the author was trying to get across. In The Almond Tree a war has been ensued; over different cultures and beliefs. The Palestinians have had to fight to survive. They have held onto any semblance of hope to get them through the hard times. Throughout the novel, Corasanti weaves meaningful concepts into the text by utilizing the almond tree as a symbol of hope, strength, or perseverance, and manipulates the tree as a witness to create a focus in the story that has meaning to the characters. In the beginning of the story, Corasanti uses the almond tree as a constant presence in the lives of the characters, which creates meaning as a source of hope. One such time was when Baba was labeled as a dangerous …show more content…

The tree was more than just a thing of nature, since it represented their future, their hope, their strength and perseverance, and was a constant presence in their lives. At the end of the book, Ichmad comes back home and looks out the window to see the almond tree, “Back at the village, I put my Nobel Prize medallion on the bookshelf in my parents’ living room and looked out of the new window my parents had installed for a view of my favorite spot in all the world: the almond tree” (Corasanti 347). At the end of the book, the almond tree came back full circle and was one of the last things that Ichmad thought about. The tree represented the journey through his life, and was there for most of the important events in his life. The tree had so much meaning in his life that contrary to the tree reminding him of his past memories, that it became his favorite place in the world, like an ever constant