Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Tree Symbolism in “A Separate Peace”. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 3 page paper discusses the symbolism of the tree in John Knowles’ novel “A Separate Peace.” Bibliography lists 1 source.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVSepPce.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
a realistic view of the world, and that is why the book has lasted. In addition, the book is highly symbolic, and one of its most potent symbols is the
tree no the riverbank. This paper argues that the tree is effective because it symbolizes three stages of life: birth, growth and death. Discussion The book begins when the narrator
Gene returns to the campus. He says: "There were a couple of places now which I wanted to see. Both were fearful sights, and that was why I wanted to
see them" (Knowles 10). The first place he wanted to see was the First Academy Building, where he looks at the stairs and reflects that he has more "money and
success and security than in the days when specters seemed to go up and down them with me" (Knowles 12). The use of the word "specter" tells the reader that
Gene is haunted by something, though what it is remains to be discovered. (It is his guilt that haunts Gene.) The second thing he looks for is the tree. At
first he cannot find it, then he picks it out from among the others: "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" (Knowles 14). In other words, things that seem gigantic to us when we are children shrink when we become adults; its not that they seem smaller because we have
grown, but that they have become smaller in fact. People shrink with age, and so do ideas; so does the tree. When the boy use the tree to play their
...