A Separate Peace, a novel written by John Knowles, has many great themes about competition, friendship, and growing up. The great symbol is a very tall tree by the Devon River. The tree symbolizes war, adulthood, and friendships. The tree is a great symbol to both Finny and Gene. Even though the tree doesn't say a single word throughout the whole book, it plays a huge character. There are many reasons on why something as simple as a tree can play a huge role in Finny and Gene's life.
             War, adulthood, and friendship are three ways the tree is a huge symbol. First, it symbolizes war. During the time Finny and Gene were in the Devon school they were trying to get ready to fight in World War II. One day Finny and Gene went to the tree and saw many of the senior boys in Devon jumping out of it. When seeing them jump, Finny decides that they need to start training to fight in the war to. Finny is the first of the two to jump. When he gets to the limb he says, "Well here is my contribution to the war efforts!" (Page 8) and jumps. Gene is next; he reaches the branch to jump off of. He stands on the branch in fright. Finny waiting at the bottom of the tree yells, "Come on, when they torpedo the troopships you can't just stand there admiring the view, JUMP!!"(Page 9) Gene thought about this for a few more seconds and then jumps. The way the Devon boys are jumping out of the tree makes it a symbol of war. Next, it symbolizes adulthood. The author, John Knowles, created the character Leper Lepellier, someone that never thought about growing up. The author made it to where he never jumps out of the tree like everyone else does. Instead, he just watches everyone else jump. One day the Devon school had a recruit officer show a video where all the soldiers were skiing. Leper thought that if skiing was what the war was about then he wanted to get into it. After the movie he went and enlisted into the army. Not lon...