When something is covered or hidden, it looses it's depth and projects an illusion of deceivement. In the winter seasons, snow envelops its surroundings, blanketing the earth with a milky white blanket. This blanket is beautiful yet it's also deceiving in how it shrouds objects from view. In John Knowles" A Separate Peace, the deceptive environment symbolizes the sly and mysterious nature that Gene displays. The mysterious nature of Gene towards his fellow peers and the deceiving nature of the Vermont landscape are symbolized by the indestructible trees, the snow covered hills and the lack of human life.
The purity and serene snow covered hills from the Vermont landscape represent the misleading nature Gene displays towards his friends and teachers at Devon School about the event concerning Finny's accident. Grassy hills, though beautiful, are sometimes a source of hardship since they are steep and hard to maneuver, but they are still passable, and one usually associates grassy hills with the truth. In the Vermont landscape, the snow-covered hills hide the truth below, which is the green lively grass. The snow-covered hills are an illusion, just as Gene is with the accident, that eventually killed Finny. Gene never told anyone what really happened at the accident, hiding the truth just in the quote, ". in which the snow, white almost to blueness, lay like a soft comforter over the hills." . Large, grassy hills offer a challenge, but the snow-covered hills symbolize Gene's false nature towards everyone at Devon.
The lack of human life in the snow-covered hills of Leper's hometown represents the emptiness and abandonment Gene feels throughout the novel. Places of familiarity are considered a source of hope and understanding, things that one usually associates with freedom. However, the Vermont landscape is described as, "The Leppellier house was not far out of town, I was told. There was no taxi, I was also told, and there was no one, I did not need to be told, who would offer to drive me out there.