TONE AND MOOD TONE Little Johnny you get

TONE AND MOOD

TONE • “Little Johnny, you get down here right this minute!” • Can you picture the person saying this? • How would they be standing? Where would they be looking? • What would their tone of voice sound like?

Tone in Literature… • The attitude or position an author takes towards his subject (the people, places, events, etc. . )

How can you tell what the author’s tone is? • Word choices (aka diction) • Sentence structure: short sentences, long sentences • What’s said (explicit) or even not said (implied)

Tone can be… Attitudes and feelings that humans experience (Meyer 2144): • Paranoid • Sad • Formal • Serious • Uninterested • Neutral

What’s the tone? • “The door is shut, and the chains rattle; there is a grinding of the key in the lock; I can hear the key withdraw: then another door opens and shuts; I hear the creaking of lock and bolt” (Stoker 57). • Look at: • Word choice…sentence structure…what’s said/not said…

MOOD • It’s the feelings of the character • It’s the feelings you get when reading • It’s a specific atmosphere

How Is Mood Created? • • Word choice (dialogue) Setting Character’s emotions and what they do or don’t do How characters respond to each other (interactions)

Mood can be… • • • Calm Depressing Joyful Threatening Spooky Sinister

What’s the mood? • It was a dark and stormy night, the windows rattled and the house creaked and moaned… • I cried with probably the hugest smile a person could ever have on their face when I saw them… • They wouldn’t look at me…they simply stood quietly looking down as they all shifted from one foot to the other as if they were hoping I wouldn’t ask what happened. My spine tingled and my heartbeat quickened.

What’s the tone and the mood? • “Don’t be such a jerk!” she screamed out. • Tone: melodramatic, frustrated Mood: awkward, intense • The sunset on the rolling waves as the children in the distance ran laughing in and out of the water. • Tone: lighthearted, calm Mood: lighthearted, calm • I screamed for the stranger to get out but he wouldn’t he just kept coming and my heart almost beat out of my chest and my hands shook and I felt ice cold… • Tone: desperate, serious Mood: foreboding, terrifying

Practice time… • Take out a blank piece of paper • You will be given a list of words with possible tones and moods you may use • For the following short excerpts, write the tone and mood for each first • Then share with your neighbor what you put and compare notes

From Wonder by R. J. Palacio • “…Grans told me she had a secret to tell me: she loved me more than anyone else in the world. “Even August? ” I had asked. She smiled and stroked my hair, like she was thinking about what to say. “I love Auggie very, very much, ” she said softly. I can still remember her Portuguese accent, the way she rolled her r’s. “But he has many angels looking out for him already, Via. And I want you to know that you have me looking out for you. Okay, menina querida? I want you to know that you are number one for me. You are my…” She looked out at the ocean and spread her hands out, like she was trying to smooth out the waves, “You are my everything. You understand me, Via? Tu es meu tudo. ” I understood her. And I knew why she said it was a secret. Grandmothers aren’t supposed to have favorites. Everyone knows that. But after she died, I held on to that secret and let it cover me like a blanket (87). ”

Wonder “Mr. Browne’s precept for October was: YOUR DEEDS ARE YOUR MONUMENTS. He told us that this was written on the tombstone of some Egyptian guy that died thousands of years ago. Since we were just about to start studying ancient Egypt in history, Mr. Browne thought this was a good choice for a precept (65). ”

From Bram Stoker’s Dracula “I am at last sane. Thank God for that mercy at all events , though the proving it has been dreadful (401). ”

Works Cited Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. Boston: U of Connecticut, 2005. Print. Palacio, R. J. Wonder. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. Print. Stoker, Bram. Dracula. New York: Bantam Dell, 2004. Print.