In Chapter 9 of A Separate Peace, what language emphasizes the dismal world the boys seem to inhabit?

Even as Finny tries mightily to create his "separate
peace" in Chapter 9, reminders of the dismal implications of the war cannot be escaped.
The narrative is peppered with references to the war and the gloomy weather, which
serves as a metaphor for the bleak backdrop of what is going on in the world outside of
Devon School. In the first paragraph of the chapter, while Gene begins his explanation
of Finny's unique vision of peace, he acknowldges

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"the surrounding world
confusion"

which exists, but
has no reflection inside him in light of Finny's alternate interpretation of the
universe. Shortly thereafter, Gene describes

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"the vacuum of his
absence"

in talking about the
void that will be left when their peers will inevitably leave or be summoned to
participate in the dirty work of the war.

Gene goes on to
delineate the boys' current liaison with World War II by using a series of phrases
connected to the war,

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"Hitler's life...the Tunisian campaign...the
torpedoing of the Scharnhorst...Allied success(es)
(at)...Stalingrad...Burman Road...Archangel...the Big
Three."

Beneath their
lighthearted facades, the boys wonder,

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"whether (they)...would measure up to the
humblest minimum standard of the army...(and) whether the still hidden parts of
(them)selves might contain the Sad Sack, the outcast, or the
coward."

The weather is
reflective of the dismal world situation that hangs over them all.
The

"late
winter...snow has lost its novelty and its
shine,"

There
is

"the dismal
gurgling of dirty
water,"

and

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"the sky is an empty hopeless gray...battleship
gray" (Chapter 9).