The second paragraph is something of an initiation for Sylvia; she is climbing the smaller tree both as a practice for the real trial and as a vessel of getting her there. Her "bare feet and fingers" are symbolic of her uninitiated, childish nature; she goes into her trial with nothing to help her. The smaller tree is a "monstrous ladder" because it is scary, but it is a way to get to the top. The green leaves of the white oak (the small tree) are "wet with dew," yet they are "dark branches." This is a manifestation of the fear of the unknown mixing with the newness of discovery. In the last sentence, Jewett alludes to Sylvia's future pass between the old and the new; between what she had always known and what she would know always. . . .

     The third paragraph is the dangerous, brief intermission between the world the oak tree represents (familiarity) and that of the pine tree (discovery and mature enlightenment). The oak limb is "swaying" as she steps across, symbolizing her personal nervousness about leaving the safety of her familiar tree and embarking on a new quest. As she is thrown in head-first (metaphorically) to the great pine-tree, she is somewhat overwhelmed, but continues. "The way was harder than she thought, the sharp dry twigs caught and held her and scratched her like angry talons." This sentence represents Sylvia's shock and confusion at her first impression of such a new world. However, this is as temporary as the transition is brief, and Sylvia continues up the pine. . . .

     Each branch is harder to reach than the last, by the time Sylvia is faced with the challenge presented her in the fourth paragraph. At this point, the point-of-view shifts from focusing on Sylvia to a personification of the tree itself as it "felt this determined spark of human spirit creeping and climbing from higher branch to branch." The paragraph goes on to explain how the tree seems to make it easier for Sylvia to climb it, thereby suggesting that destiny itself has a lot to do with the gathering of knowledge and a relatively simple attainment of her goal. Sylvia is described as the tree's "new dependent" which literally makes her the child of a vessel of knowledge, shepherded by destiny towards her higher goal. The dawn "grew bright in the east" at the end, suggesting the dawning of understanding through light imagery.

     "Sylvia's face was like a pale star" in the fifth paragraph, using an expression of simile to show her distance from the ground, her pure, radiating happiness at having attained her prime objective, and, as stars are considered "heavenly," to one on the ground Sylvia is enlightened. The "last thorny bough" is the metaphorical last obstacle, and Sylvia stands "trembling and tired but wholly triumphant" since the journey has taken a lot out of her but, through perseverance, she has achieved goal. What she had dreamed about all those years before she had attempted to climb the pine, the all-important ocean, is there before her eyes. She sees two hawks, who, before her journey, seemed so high; NOW THEY ARE BELOW HER. They look different, not silhouetted from below but seen as gray, their true color. From the top of the tree, Sylvia can now see so much that she didn't know was there; so much that she knows nothing of. "Miles" were incomprehensible before, but now can be comprehended from her vantage point. She sees that the world is much bigger than she previously thought, and, since there was so much she couldn't see before and, after climbing the tree, she can, she knows that there is more out there than she can see even from the top of this tree, yet by calling it an "awesome world," it is shown that Sylvia is not unhappy about this. The fifth paragraph is the one that shows Sylvia's achievement and attaining of goals, and her present enlightenment and knowledge.

[My comment: I got a A-plus-plus on this, with extra credit, and the teacher used it as an example. The only critique he had was that I should use language devices as examples more.]