Motif
Hmmm. As far as I can tell, motif theory applies to the way in which analysts and theorists attempt to apply universal motifs (motives) to variables. It presents a daunting task, if not an impossible one. How does it apply to your essay? Think of patterns in idea, thought, structure, interpretation, and application that exist in the different "literature" you are writing about.
How's that?
Check this theory out as it relates to visual and written art. The following is by Keiko Hara, an artist in Walla Walla, Washington. I have seen her "stuff" on display in Spokane.
Keiko Hara
Verse—Imbuing in Red, 2004
Courtesy the artist
Then, think about A Separate Peace and the characters Gene, Finny, and Brinker. I find a common motif here--contrast. Contrast helps the eye flow from black to red to black to yellow to white to the red that bleeds into the white. Like verse and relationships and personal growth, contrast helps us realize the differences between colors, people, and stages of life. Finny loves life, but needs to acknowledge fear. Brinker overanalyzes and isolates others. Gene fears but by the end learns to trust. The contrast between the summer and winter sessions, between his fear of relationships and his final plea for Finny to forgive him (and oddly, his acceptance of Finny's forgiveness), show us the same lesson that comes at the bottom of the painting. We flow from one stage to another. We flow in our relationships with each other. We flow from bold, stark, maybe painful contrast to unsure, tentative, yet real growth and discovery.
P.E. and A Separate Peace
Symbolism
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://peregrinations.kenyon.edu/gilles_photoessay/gillesimages/RQ069a.jpg&imgrefurl=http://peregrinations.kenyon.edu/gilles_photoessay/StGilles-du-Gard.html&usg=__ZOnQ-tjHmSIvNzGxHrjn0vf2DD0=&h=512&w=776&sz=96&hl=en&start=30&um=1&tbnid=dDw8BK1T-KocwM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=142&prev=/images%3Fq%3Djesus%2Bbefore%2Bpilate%2Bsculpture%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26start%3D18%26um%3D1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/duckmarx/380261878/in/set-72157594267796347/
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Antonio_Ciseri_Ecce_Homo.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecce_Homo
Innocence. Life. A Symbol of the Life the War Was Being Fought to Preserve.
Irony. Rhetoric.