When Gene first talks to Leper after he gets the telegram from Leper regarding his “escape,” the author employs diction that reveals Gene’s fearful tone, mirroring his suspicion and anxiety regarding the war. When Gene questions Leper on how he escaped from the army, Leper responds by asking him if he even has a slightest idea of what the army is like. Gene states that he doesn’t, since he doesn’t know how they define “normal,” to which Leper repeats bitterly, “‘Normal…I suppose that’s what you’re thinking about, isn’t it? You’re thinking I’m not normal…you’re thinking I’m psycho’” (143). The moment that Leper’s accusation is out in the open, Gene “gathered up what the word meant” and reflects, “I hated the sound of it at once. It opened up a world I had not known existed – ‘mad’ or ‘crazy’ or ‘a screw loose,’ those were the familiar words. ‘Psycho’ had a sudden mental-ward reality about it, a systematic, diagnostic sound…Fear seized my stomach like a cramp…it was myself I was worried about. For if Leper was a psycho it was the army which had done it to him, and I and all of us were on the brink of the army” (142-143). Gene then looks at Leper and yells, “‘You make me sick, you and your damn army words’” (143).
Knowles’s use of the words “psycho,” “mad,” “crazy,” and “a screw loose” convey the building of fear in Gene which is then physically embodied when he yells at Leper and states that his experience with the army sickens him. The employment of diction that connotates instability and lunacy mirrors the fear in Gene that is soon apparent through his anxious tone, when he further goes on to attack Leper and states, “‘he said something crazy, I forgot myself – I forgot that he’s, there’s something the matter with his nerves…He didn’t know what he was saying’” (145-146). The author constantly utilizes words such as “crazy” and “nerves” in the conversation, aiding in Gene’s fearful tone, which represents his alarm at the fact that the glorified stories he has heard about war are false and in fact, the combat has the power to drive even the most capable and “normal” individuals to a state of insanity.
Knowles’ use of diction conveys the fear inside Gene when talking with Leper that you suggested. The analysis of words such as “mad,” “crazy,” and “psycho” truly bring out Knowles’ intentions of creating this tone of fear during the scene between Gene and Leper. I especially like your further evaluation of Gene’s realization that war is not what it is made out to be and the shattering of war glory in Gene’s mind. You can even advance your analysis more by connecting his realization back to Gene’s situation at Devon School with Phineas and how it affects both of them.
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