Symbols 'By James Ellis' A Separate Peace: Literary Criticism

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In the evident literary criticism, “Interconnected Symbols” by James Ellis, Ellis explicitly explains that the concept of the novel, A Separate Peace, has numerous symbols that correspond with one another. When reading the novel, the basic understanding of the story is the friendship that Finny and Gene share with each other. Ellis, on the other hand strips the level of meanings by finding the move of innocence to the infatuation of brotherhood and betrayal, with three different aspects of interconnected symbols. These include: summer and winter, the Devon River and the Naguamsett River, and peace and war; each one supporting one another. Ellis also includes the tree, Gene’s envy, Gene’s regeneration, a make believe war, and Gene’s understanding …show more content…

Ellis proves how every symbol is relevant to the novels meaning of transferring from innocence, to adulthood. One important aspect and symbol that Ellis connects to the loss of innocence to adulthood is the Devon tree. Ellis reveals that “both fall from innocence and at the same time prepare himself for the second world war” and that “this tree is a temptation” thanks to Phineas (Ellis 34). James Ellis explains that from Gene and Finny jumping from the Devon tree during the Summer Session, it imitates a new loss of innocence because Gene gives into Finny’s temptation of jumping, rather than listening to his own secluded mind and respect towards following the rules. Finny, falling into the temptation of the tree, and Gene, giving into Finny’s dare of jumping from the tree into the Devon river, allows them to officially initiate the start of their second world war, in this case the start of their adulthood. In addition to the Devon Tree corresponding with the start of adulthood, Ellis explains how the two rivers are a symbolic meaning towards the loss of innocence. Ellis says, “The Devon, a familiar and bucolic river suggestive of Eden, that Finny and Gene had jumped from the tree. But after his fall from innocence, Gene experiences a baptism of a different sort as he plunges into the Naguamsett” (37). Ellis reveals that the

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