Diction In A Separate Peace

War always seems to have no end. A war between countries can cross the world, whether it is considered a world war or not. No one can be saved from the reaches of a violent war, not even those locked in a safe haven. War looms over all who recognize it. For some, knowing the war will be their future provides a reason for living, but for others the war represents the snatching of their lives without their consent. Every reaction to war in A Separate Peace is different, as in life. In the novel, about boys coming of age during World War II, John Knowles uses character development, negative diction, and setting to argue that war forever changes the way we see the world and forces us to mature rapidly. Throughout the novel, Knowles utilizes negative diction in regards to the war to show that Gene views it negatively. Gene believes “happiness had disappeared along with rubber, silk, and many other staples, to be replaced by the wartime synthetic, high morale, for the Duration” (Knowles 202). He associates the war with the death of happiness. The negativity plagues everything he believes about the war. High morale, normally considered a good thing in a time of war, becomes bad in Gene’s eyes. He views it as “synthetic,” which implies fakeness or dishonesty. Gene also sees anything that he associates with the war as worse. When Leper calls himself psycho,

The development of the war occurs with the maturing of Gene and most of his fellow students. The negative diction associated with the war revealed how Gene feared and even hated just the idea of war. In the end, however, he realized his own involvement in the war included no real warfare. As the war continues, Gene gives up on childlike activities like games and instead joins the war efforts. Through the setting of the Devon School, Knowles shows how war can reach even the most sheltered places. War molds our youth and thus molds our