The symbolism of Judaism
Although the use of the author's Jewish heritage is subtle, the implications should be read symbolically. The idea of storytelling and Judaism have a long relationship, since the Jewish scriptures are literally just stories about humans experiencing the divine. In this story, Judaism isn't earning the protagonist any favors. He is pitted against the wealthy and powerful who clearly ostracize him about his ethnicity and culture.
The symbolic band of kids
There is an archetypal mention to kids being bullies. Instead of calling down she-bears to maul the bullies like the prophet Elisha in his Jewish scriptures, the protagonist settles on a different attack plan. He will win. This is a picture of competition as a resistance to injustice. He wants to win the writing contest so he can meet Ernest Hemingway, of course, but also to prove his worth in his community.
Makepeace as a symbol of time
What makes peace better than time? Also, the time is the only element that separates the protagonist from this authoritarian Dean. The protagonist lies about his source material (which he blatantly plagiarized, shaming himself as an intellectual thief), but Makepeace has the same impulses toward deceit, and he still uses them. The only difference? Dean Makepeace is old enough to have honed his lying technique.
Artistic criticism in motif
When the story falls flat, it is literally Robert Frost and Ernest Hemingway who deliberate about him. But through motif, we learn that this criticism doesn't actually mean what he thinks it does. First of all, did Hemingway really say anything at all, or was Makepeace lying? Also, Robert Frost picks a winner, but the student decides he doesn't agree with Frost. He prefers his own art, which he literally stole. This is a satirical portrait of artistic criticism.
The allegory of the author
The author is confessing himself to be a thief in some ways, through a fictional lens of course. The question serves to make the unnamed narrator into a "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," to borrow a famous title from another work. The allegory serves to instruct young authors about finding their own approval in their quest toward becoming a successful artist, and not depending on approval from others, because those people are just as broken and dishonest as any author.
