A Late Encounter with the Enemy

Diction is the effective use of specific words in literature. In “A Late Encounter With the Enemy,” O’Connor uses diction as a form of characterization, using different linguistic registers for exposition and dialogue, and even shifting the diction as the narrator moves from Sally’s consciousness to that of her grandfather.

Phrases such as “didn’t give two slaps” (153), and “the damn procession” (154),  and “no more a notion of dying than a cat” (160) indicate the General’s perspective and contribute to his characterization as aggressive, crude, and old-fashioned. When the point of view shifts to Sally, the diction changes. In her imagination, she repeats the exhortation, “See him!” in a tone of almost Biblical authority, while deriding the “upstarts” of her college. However, she also reflects on “how sweet it would be to see the old man in his courageous gray” (156). Sally’s language—and the language used to describe her thoughts—oscillates between aggressive and restrained, but it remains at all times self-consciously formal, in contrast with that of her grandfather. This technique is also used with more minor characters—the reader is asked to imagine the 10-year-old