Tone in Literature

British Literature. Wed, Oct 3rd, 2007 at 5:00 pm

Reminder: Essay on Friday. We will discuss the prompt in class tomorrow, and an outline for the essay will be due/graded on Friday along with your journals.

While going over your quizzes I have noticed that some of you are confused by what exactly constitutes the “tone” of a passage.Â I have described tone as how a piece “feels” or what “mood” the author seems to be in when he or she writes a piece.Â To help you discover the tone of future pieces, here is a list of tonal words (in no particular order):

boring

poignant

sympathetic

afraid

detached

contemptuous

happy

confused

apologetic

hollow

childish

angry

sad

sentimental

sharp

cold

fanciful

upset

urgent

complimentary

silly

joking

joyful

peaceful

horrific

allusive

mocking

sarcastic

sweet

objective

nostalgic

vexed

vibrant

tired

frivolous

irreverent

bitter

audacious

benevolent

dreamy

shocking

seductive

restrained

somber

giddy

pitiful

dramatic

provocative

didactic

proud

candid

zealous

condescending

humorous

How many do you already recognize from Lord of the Flies? Tone can be an important aspect of an analysis, and you can write an entire essay defending a thesis statement such as: “Although the island in Lord of the Flies seems to be a paradise at first, the author foreshadows later events through the oppressive tone used when he describes the boys’ surroundings.”

[This post was WinsomeWiki’d on 4 Jul. 2009.]