1) Read the book.

2) Look up words you don’t understand (online dictionaries, thesauruses, and google searches are helpful too).

3) Think about what what those symbols mean to YOU.

4) You CAN do it. Overcome your false assumption that everybody else knows more and just jump in there and read. It’s a feeling like *no other* to accomplish something good on your own.

I mean it. Giving a thumbs-down and moving on is the typical loser’s way out. Don’t be lazy and just keep looking for the person who’s gonna throw you a bone. You’re no loser, right? Make this the day you learn to stand on your own two feet, or you’ll get stuck– never growing up and feeling good about yourself.

And it’s “A Separate Peace,” baby. All letters in a title are capitalized (except the small, very common connector words after the first word), and ‘separate’ is spelled P-A-R, not P-E-R.

Okay– I can’t resist– I WILL throw you a bone since you very well might not be familiar with Christian symbolism. Also, you got me all interested in this book and I found a great site explaining it; see ‘Major themes’ of the following site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Separate_Peace.

*I* happen to think the tree symbol is that of good and evil, though, not of knowledge– although that idea could be developed from the protagonist’s obsession and envy of achieving the best grades.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/separate/themes.html

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/A-Separate-Peace.id-168,pageNum-3.html