The Peppermint Tree Symbol Analysis

The peppermint tree by the orchard near Abel’s house is special to Abel and his mother Dora because it symbolizes Abel’s father. Abel’s father died when Abel was only two years old, but the tree signifies that Abel’s father is still present in Abel and Dora’s lives because his memory lives on. The peppermint tree is connected to Abel’s father because Dora has transformed it into a shrine for him. She keeps a candle, pearl shells, and driftwood carvings on the deep fork in the tree, and she spends time with the tree whenever she wants to remember Abel’s father. As a shrine, the peppermint tree honors Abel’s father’s memory and attests to Dora’s lasting love for her husband. Moreover, the tree visibly demonstrates that Abel’s father’s memory doesn’t exist statically only in Abel’s and Dora’s heads. Instead, his memory endures outside of Abel and Dora as well, in their home and in the living, growing nature that surrounds them.

To Abel, the peppermint tree represents his father even more closely. Before Abel leaves Longboat Bay for his first semester of high school in a different town, he embraces the peppermint tree. Affectionately, he presses “his cheek against the rough bark,” hugging the tree as if, by doing so, he can also hug his father. By saying goodbye to his father in this way, Abel shows that the tree doesn’t just hold his father’s memory but also tangibly represents his father himself. Therefore, the peppermint tree symbolizes Abel’s father, who lives on even after death through nature in Longboat Bay and through the strength of Dora’s and Abel’s love.