The battle against "evil"
Coyote can be said to symbolize evil, but that is fascinating because it implies that in Ethan's developing religious beliefs, he views the coyote as a sensible metaphor to his own evil qualities. Simply put, one might say the metaphor suggests that Ethan is attempting to overcome his own carnivorous, violent nature, which is challenging because it is instinctual in him, just as in the coyote.
Baseball as a full religious motif
To say Baseball is a symbol would be an understatement. Baseball sets the stage in this poetry for how Ethan finds himself in religious territory. Baseball and religion are related by motif, because fiction about the sport has often invoked transcendental religion as a way of explaining what it is really like to excel at the sport. Baseball involves the precise execution of a skill during a perfect moment, right as the ball crosses the plate. This symbolizes something Ethan considers to be religious.
The friends
Ethan's friendship with Cutbelly demonstrates that agents of fate can sometimes arrive in a person's life and change the direction of a human life. Then, that effect is explored in Jennifer and Thor, one boy and one girl, and this symbolizes the relationship with society that Ethan enjoys as a hero. Since his motives are pure, people enjoy helping him, and indeed, without their support, he might not succeed at all.
The Tree of Life
This is plainly religious language, borrowing from the Christian Bible, it seems, especially one particular passage in the book of John's apocalyptic Revelation at the end of the Bible, which refers to the roots of the Tree of Life extending to either side of a river, so the tree is suspended above a passage of water.
That is the symbol that this poetry invokes. The tree serves as a bridge between ordinary life and sublime life, between the state of normalcy that leaves Ethan feeling bored and agitated, and the state of complete wonder and surrender that he would probably say feel like paradise. The tree represents the abundant state of mental and emotional paradise.
Ethan's skill
One would think that since the book obviously plays so heavily on Baseball as its primary metaphor, that Ethan would actually be good at it, but Ethan's poor skill is actually designed as an encouraging symbolic reminder that skill and competence, although enjoyable and important, are not necessary for the kind of bliss Ethan seeks. He is successful against Coyote not because he is good at Baseball, but because he loves it and has fun playing.
