Jack Kerouac's Winter Tone, Revised Version.

The winter session at Devon had a warlike tone. This warlike tone relates to World War II, which was going on during the time of the winter session. Furthermore the boys had to decide whether they were going to enlist or not. An example of Devon’s winter session being war like is the fight between Quackenbush and Gene on page 79,

“You Quackenbush don’t know anything about who I am. That launched me, and I had to go on and say, or anything else. Listen you maimed son of a bitch … I hit him hard across the face. I didn’t know why for an instant; it was almost as though I were maimed."

The way Gene says “you, Quackenbush” shows his anger toward Quackenbush. This feeling of anger leads to Devon’s winter session being much more warlike. The fact that Gene was “launched” shows how he then went on further on the offensive about Quackenbush for little reason. The word launched can come from shooting something out of a cannon, which was still going on during World War II and shows how the fighting in Devon was similar to that of what was going on in Nazi Germany. Calling someone a “maimed son of a bitch” obviously shows that the boys are fighting with one another. Furthermore the word maimed means crippled or injured, which relates to the war over in Europe. When Gene says that he were maimed he may be talking about the emotional blackmail that Finny has over him. This is the guilt inside of himself that he ruined Finny’s life and he will be emotionally maimed for the rest of his life. His emotional problems are similar to those of returning war veterans who have witnessed the death of many fellow soldiers.