Essay On The Tree In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

ATTENTION GETTER Gene and Phineas become the best friends through jumping out of the same tree. Throughout the book we can see their attitude towards each other drastically change. Gene starts to imagine things about Phineas that aren’t really there. Gene decides to take matter into his own hand, and jiggle a branch that they're both on. The tree in The Separate peace by John Knowles represents death, friendship, and change. In a Separate Peace by John Knowles the tree symbolizes death. While the doctor could make it so that Phineas could walk again after he fell out of the tree and broke his leg he wouldn’t be able to run and play sports again. Sports where the one thing he was good at in life since he wasn’t good at academics like Gene, and the injury just ripped away the one thing that made him who he was. As soon as Finny broke his leg, he lost more than just sports, the war recruiters no longer wanted him which is what he had wanted to do with his life. Phineas states, “I don’t know if I can take this with a war on” (Knowles, 103). With losing both, his future and current life, we can infer that Phineas felt like he had lost his life, and this causes his …show more content…
The tree is where we see that Phineas decides him and Gene are going to be the best of friends. Right after Gene jumps out of the tree Phineas states, “just me and you” (Knowles, 5). As the two became more of friends they formed the Super Summer Suicide Society, and the group met all the time and each meeting started with Gene and Phineas jumping out of the tree. This society strengthened their friendship and brought them closer throughout the summer. This is the place where they made the most and most memorable memories. This is one of the places Gene first visiting when stopping at Devon Academy years later. This tree also symbolizes peace between Finny, Gene, and the rest of the