A real war and a "war" of fighting to grow old and successful
Explanation:
Based on the excerpt, Robert Louis Stevenson was reminiscing about his days as a younger man and the internal conflicts he had.
In the first paragraph, he talked about the real war he witnessed where he heard the "loudness" of the battles and the "pain of men's wounds". He also talked about another internal "war" which had to do with "slavery of competition", toiling for years and which culminated to fighting to be old and successful.
The definition of communal is "Shared by all members of a community; for common use."
I would say that their kitchen <em>is</em> communal because their "community" consists of all the roommates who use the kitchen and contribute to it. If only one person contributed to the kitchen stock, then it would not be communal.
