Symbols in the Old Man and the Sea and a Separate Peace

An author will often use an object to serve as the unifying symbolic focus of his or her novel.   In the novel, The Old Man and the Sea, the marlin serves as a symbol of fraternal connection.   The Tree in A Separate Peace represents change throughout life. In both novels, the objects serve as unifying factors between man and nature, but with differing relationships between the characters and the objects.   In both stories, the objects serve as metaphors for life lessons.
Both The Tree and The Marlin, have a high impact on the main character’s life.   The Marlin helped Santiago gain respect from his fellow fishermen. The tree helps Gene realize his personal growth and overcome his fears. There is also external conflict and internal conflict throughout both of the novels, due to the side effects of the main character’s battles with the symbolic objects.   In A Separate Peace, Finny’s fall from the tree results in Gene having feelings of severe guilt and shame.   In The Old Man and the Sea, The Marlin teaches Santiago that there is pride in struggle, defeat, and death.  
Both symbols in the novels, serve as a form of initiation, metaphorically and socially.   In The Old Man and the Sea, by catching The Marlin, Santiago is initiated as a renewed fisherman when he returns home. He gains more respect from the others, and proved that he is still capable of great things.   In A Separate Peace, Gene and Phineas use The Tree, as an initiation into their club, the Super Suicide Society of the Summer.   Essentially, they both influenced the character’s social status and state of mind.
In both novels, the symbols have different representation of milestones in the character’s lives.   They teach the characters lessons, and serve as metaphors for the novel’s readers.   They bring forth emotion and result in consequences. They initiate certain events along the plot of the story.   The objects in a story, can contribute, or even dominate the outcome of a story.   But in this case, they...