Voice Lessons Tone Understanding voice in literature and

Voice Lessons – Tone Understanding voice in literature and using it in your own writing Adapted from Nancy Dean’s Voice Lessons

What is Tone? �Tone is the expression of attitude. �It is the writer’s (or narrator’s) implied attitude toward his subject and audience. �The writer creates tone by selection (diction) and arrangement (syntax) of words, and by the purposeful use of details and images. �Tone sets the emotion growing out of the material and is the hallmark of the writer’s personality.

What is Tone? �Tone is as varied as human experience. Identifying and analyzing tone requires careful reading and attention to all of the writer’s choices. �Sounds overwhelming? One trick that may help you figure out the tone of the story that you're reading is to imagine a key scene from the story as a movie. What sort of music would be playing in the background? Do you imagine something dark and moody, light and peppy, somber and thoughtful? Music is a tool often used in movies to emphasize tone.

Tone in Their Eyes �In Their Eyes were Watching God, Hurston’s tone is one of deep appreciation and celebration of African. American folk culture. �Her attitude toward Janie is compassionate and affirming; in fact, she shows sympathy toward most of her characters, even those that seem antagonistic. Hurston does this by providing context to help the reader understand the characters motivations. �Practice: What music do you hear in the hurricane scene? What about Janie’s return to Eatonville?

Tone in Brave New World �Huxley’s tone is extremely critical of the World State. The descriptions of the caste system, the children’s “erotic play, ” and the pill-popping, promiscuous, vapid adults, serve as a warning of society’s fate if we continue down our current consumerist, governmentcontrolled path. �Practice: His attitude toward the reservation is decidedly different. How would you describe Huxley’s tone toward the reservation?

Tone in Going After Cacciato �Practice: What music do you hear when Stink kills the water buffalo? What is O’Brien’s tone in this scene? �How does that differ from the tone on the Song Tra Bon? What music (if any) do you hear there?

Thinking About Tone �As we read Hamlet, think about the music that might play as a soundtrack to each scene to see if that helps you to identify tone. �What type of music might play while Ophelia and Laertes converse about Hamlet’s love before Laertes departs for France? What tone does it set?