The War With Grandpa

“This room is MINE. Nobody else in my family ever lived here. Nobody.”

Peter uses all capital letters to reinforce his relationship with his room. He also uses repetition—he repeats “nobody” twice—to drive home the point that the room belongs to him: It’s his territory—his space that he shares with no one.

“Absolutely, positively, one hundred percent no! Spelled N-O!”

Peter uses repetition to highlight his objections to his parents’ plan. He says “no” once, and then he spells it out. His dramatic reaction isn’t an example of effective communication, and neither is his parents’ choice to give Grandpa his room without consulting him.

“There’s a thing that happens when parents want kids to do something and the kid doesn’t want to. What happens is that the parents usually win. That’s one of the big advantages of being a parent. You get to win the arguments.”

The power struggle between children and their parents is a timeless conflict that will resonate with Smith’s audience, as will his frustration that too many arguments with adults are inherently unwinnable. Peter comes to appreciate by the end of the novel that learning to effectively communicate with adults can change the outcomes of seemingly unwinnable situations.

“The last thing that was moved into the guest room was me.”

Peter’s displacement is complete, and he feels like not a human but an object—he’s a thing to be moved under someone else’s power.

“I thought about my illustrated book of old sea battles and the picture of John Paul Jones on deck with his big curved sword in the air. ‘I have just begun to fight!’ he said.”

Peter alludes to the Revolutionary War through John Paul Jones. In other words, he doesn’t explicitly say it, but he suggests the Revolutionary War through Jones. The reference foreshadows Peter’s plan: war with Grandpa.

“Grandpa had no life at all. Could you die from being sad? I wondered. Could you?”

Peter recognizes Grandpa’s sadness. Grandpa has “no life,” and his grief makes Peter wonder if it’s possible to die from sorrow. By repeating the rhetorical question, Peter shows that he’s sympathetic toward his grandfather and concerned for his well-being.

“Your grandfather is a room robber and it isn’t fair.”

Billy uses alliteration—he places two words close together that have the same first letter—and calls Grandpa “a room robber.” The phrase is catchy and silly, and it turns Grandpa into an antagonist.

“I was certainly trapped. My family had taken my room away and hadn’t given me a chance to fight back.”

Peter uses figurative language. He’s not literally trapped: He’s free to go anywhere he wants, but he feels stuck because he has no way to reacquire his room. The lack of agency and power pushes him to war.

“You think the Japanese sent a note before they attacked Pearl Harbor? ‘Dear United States, pardon us but we are going to sink all your ships. Sorry.’”

Billy compares Peter’s war to when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, which resulted in America’s official entry into World War II. The connection is absurd. Then again, so is writing someone a note to let them know that they’re the target of war.

“To tell you the truth, I felt uncertain about what I was about to do to Grandpa. But to get back what was mine, I had to fight.”

Peter is honest with the reader, so he’s trustworthy. He also has a conscience. He’s not sure if he’s doing the right thing.

“Stuff and nonsense is what it is. You don’t go to war against kin. You have to have an enemy to have a war, and I’m certainly not your enemy.”

Grandpa’s diction conveys the ridiculousness of Peter’s war. He rejects the notion that families can go to war, and he rejects the enemy label. He’s not Peter’s enemy; he’s his grandpa.

“Look, Peter, this situation is kind of out of my control, if you see what I mean. I didn’t want to come up here from Florida and take your room. No way I wanted to do that.”

Grandpa Jack lacks power and agency. He didn’t choose to leave Florida and occupy Peter’s room any more than Peter chose to give up his room. Other people made choices for both of them; they are equally powerless.

“He’s just a good sweet man who loves me a lot. So he forgave my stealing his slippers and let me know by kissing me.”

Sometimes, Grandpa is the enemy; other times, he’s not. When Billy and Steve try to turn Grandpa into the bad guy, Peter, showcasing his agency and power, counters them. His diction—words like “good,” “sweet,” and “love”—puts Grandpa in a positive context and shows that Peter understands that his relationship with his grandfather is fundamentally strong, despite the pranks.

“‘I won’t forget this,’ I said.

‘That’s the idea.’”

Dialogue illustrates the intention behind Grandpa’s slap. Grandpa wants to teach Peter that war has painful physical consequences. He doesn’t want Peter to forget the slap. By remembering the moment, he’ll remember that war harms people.

“‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ she announced like she was on a stage, ‘presenting the world’s most beautiful ballerina—Miss Jennifer Stokes!’”

Jennifer has confidence and high self-esteem. She has a child’s rich fantasy life and offers a moment for her family to come together. Like her brother, Jennifer expresses herself uses a dramatic, hyperbolic tone.

“Imagine me slapping you like that. What a fool thing to do.”

Grandpa isn’t abusive; he regrets the slap as having taken the lesson about war too far. Given Grandpa’s frustration and grief, it isn’t surprising that he loses control for a moment.

“‘[I]t wasn’t your average kind of day for me either. I had one of the best days of my life with you. But—’ I said, and sort of shrugged. ‘It doesn’t change things, Grandpa.’”

Smith creates tension by juxtaposing good moments with bad ones. The wonderful fishing trip clashes with the ongoing war. Grandpa thinks the pleasant times can end the conflict, but Peter tells him otherwise. This passage demonstrates Peter’s stubbornness.

“I have my rights, you know, and if a person doesn’t want to play Monopoly, a person can’t be forced against his will.”

The diction—“rights”—connects to the idea of power and agency. Peter wants Jenny to respect his wishes. The quote features humorous exaggeration. Jenny isn’t trying to persecute Peter: She just wants to play Monopoly with him, and he’s embarrassed to admit what happened to the pieces.

“War is hell.”

As Peter struggles to track down all his things in the morning, Grandpa reminds him that war is terrible. Embracing his mentor role, Grandpa uses the conflict to teach Peter a lesson: War isn’t fun.

“It’s really a disgusting trick to steal somebody’s false teeth.”

Peter uses Grandpa’s diction and refers to his attack as a “trick.” He reveals his conscience by calling his assault “disgusting,” and he highlights how hard it can be to do the right thing. He knows he’s doing wrong, but he does it anyway.

“The war is over. I hope you’ll forgive me for what I did.”

Peter does the right thing and ends the war. He doesn’t want to continue to hurt Grandpa, and, contrite, he asks for forgiveness.

“But no, Petey, no more wars. From now on this family will talk everything out in the open.”

Grandpa notes the theme of Poor Communication Versus Effective Communication. To avoid further wars, he vows to compel the family to honestly discuss their issues.

“And then I started to think about some other things too. How you shouldn’t always do what your friends tell you to do. They’re not living your life, you are. And you have to decide what’s right or wrong.”

Peter learns from his experiences, and one of the things he learns from the war is that he doesn’t have to follow the advice of his friends. He can remain friends with Billy and Steve even if they don’t agree all the time. Peter makes his own choices based on his experiences and values.