Separate Peace Symbols

A Separate Peace - Symbolism

Tree Marble Staircase

Blitzball Devon River

Naquamsett River


The Tree

The tree "was

tremendous, an irate,

steely black steeple

beside the river."

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Gene says it symbolizes "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."

The Tree

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The Tree

The tree is fear itself - fear that Gene must climb and conquer.

And, like in the Garden of Eden, it symbolized knowledge of good and evil.

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Naquamsett River


Marble Staircase

Gene realizes how hard the marble is, and notes how "surprising [it is] that [he] had overlooked that, that crucial fact"

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Marble Staircase

"That crucial fact" led to Finny’s death.

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Marble Staircase

It symbolizes the hard cold reality of death and the irrevocable consequences of our actions.

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Naquamsett River


Finny “had unconsciously invented a game which brought his own athletic gifts to their highest pitch. The odds were tremendously against the ball carrier, so that Phinneas was driven to exceed himself practically every day when he carried the ball.”

Blitzball

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It represents the individual struggle of each student at Devon, who finds himself alone in a world without teammates.

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Blitzball


Blitzball is an undeniable symbol of war – it’s very name derived from the German warfare strategy of “Blitzkrieg.”

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Blitzball




Naquamsett River


Devon River

The river was clean and narrow with fresh water HOME


Devon River

It was where the boys swam and where they jumped from the tree. HOME


Devon River

Innocence and PurityThe Garden of Eden

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Naquamsett River


Naguamsett River

The Naguamsett River was as unfamiliar and ugly as the war was to the Devon students. “It was ugly, saline, fringed with marsh, mud and seaweed."

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Naguamsett River

Gene received his “baptism” of hate when he fell in the Naguamsett during a fight.

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Naguamsett River

Sin and CorruptionLife outside the Garden

of Eden

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Naquamsett River

Separate Peace Symbols

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Transcript of Separate Peace Symbols