A Separate Peace Tree Analysis

In the novel, A Separate Peace, the tree that Finny falls from symbolizes the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As mentioned earlier, in the Finny symbolism paragraph, his fall represented the fall of man, and so the tree he fell out of consequentially represented the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the Bible, Eve ate the fruit off the tree and thus sin entered the world. In the novel, when Finny fell, peace and innocence left the Devon school, and thereafter the winter session, full of discipline and hard work, began. During the time when the fall took place, Gene could be considered to be symbolizing the serpent. Just as the serpent caused Eve to eat from the tree and fall into sin, Gene caused Finny to fall from the tree, ending the summer session and giving way to the winter session.

This event haunts Gene even into his adult years. It haunts him so much that he comes back to Devon 15 years after he graduated to visit one of his fearful sites,
Before his incident at the tree, Finny was a sports all star. He was gifted with superior sports skills; this was shown when he beat the school swimming record without ever having practiced at all. Once the fall occurred, Finny’s life was changed forever. “Sports are finished for him [Finny], after an accident like that. Of course. . . . If I [Stanpole] had the slightest hope that he could do more than walk I’d be all for trying for everything. There is no such hope” (55). Finny’s life revolved around sports, and once the accident occurred, his life was over. To Finny, the tree represented loss, sadness, and eventually death. As shown in the book, A Separate Peace, the tree plays a very important role in the lives of both Gene and Finny, the two main characters. The tree symbolizes the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from the Bible, it represents fear, hatred, and jealousy to Gene, and it also represents loss and sadness to