Tone and Mood
We are comfortable identifying a person’s
mood through his/her facial expressions,
body language, etc.
Look at the following pictures; what “moods”
do you think the subjects are feeling?
Now look at these next pictures… What do
you think is each speaker’s tone?
• Did you find yourself using some of the
same words to describe the “mood”
pictures and the “tone” pictures?
• That’s okay. It works that way in literature
as well. Sometimes you will read a text
with a similar mood and tone, and
sometimes the tone will be quite different
from the mood and vice versa….
Let’s explore the
differences in tone and
mood…
Both tone and mood can be identified
by one-word descriptors…
Here are some common tone
words:
•Admiring
•Hilarious
•Angry
•Joyful
•Calm
•Blunt
•Nervous
•Silly
•Sympathetic
•Selfish
•Frustrated
•Unfriendly
•Violent
Here are some common mood
words:
•Amused
•Jealous
•Lonely
•Annoyed
•Calm
•Grateful
•Sick
•Hyper
•Warm
•Selfish
•Frustrated
•Unfriendly
•Violent
Both tone and mood can be identified
by one-word descriptors…
Here are some common tone
words:
•Admiring
•Hilarious
•Angry
•Joyful
•Calm
•Blunt
•Nervous
•Silly
•Sympathetic
•Selfish
•Frustrated
•Unfriendly
•Violent
Here are some common mood
words:
•Amused
•Jealous
•Lonely
•Annoyed
•Calm
•Grateful
•Sick
•Hyper
•Warm
•Selfish
•Frustrated
•Unfriendly
•Violent
Think about the following sentence:
Don’t use that tone with me!
• Which definition do you think best fits tone?
a)The feeling the reader gets him/herself from
reading the author’s writing.
b)The author’s attitude toward their writing (i.e., the
characters or the situation) and/or the audience
Think about the following sentence:
I am not in a good mood!
• Which definition do you think best fits mood?
a)the author’s attitude toward their writing (i.e., the
characters or the situation) and/or the audience
b)The feeling the reader gets him/herself from
reading the author’s writing.
More on tone and mood….
• Mood is the general, overall feeling that is
conveyed to the reader.
• Some synonyms for “mood” could be
“atmosphere” or “ambiance”
• To help identify the mood, imagine that you are
all of a sudden in the story, or painting, or
whatever piece of artwork. How would it feel to
be part of the scene?
• Tone is usually more specific to a certain
event, character, or idea.
• To help identify the tone, try to figure out how the
author feels about what he/she is writing about.
Now that you’ve got the theory down…
We’re going to practice with real world
examples!!!!
Real World Examples: Poetry
“Wren”
Oh, that cat!
So sweet in the day
and when the sun goes
away
my cat, she plays!
All through the night,
walking across my back
as I try to sleep,
and that cat attacks!
And when she wakes me up,
the first time, the third time,
or the fifteenth,
I dream of throwing her
down the stairs,
out the windows
or shipping her off to nearly
anywhere
that isn’t my bedroom.
Oh Wren, I do not love thee
so late at night
Can’t you understand I want
to sleep tight?
I am going to go to bed now
and if you don’t wake me up,
I promise not to feed you to
my dog.
Real World Examples: Art
Real World Examples: Passage
“NO TALKING!!!! There is too much noise in this class room. No one is allowed to
speak for the rest of the class period. If you do speak, I’ll write you up!!!!”
Ms. Hensen had reached the breaking point. She had tried to be a reasonable and
sympathetic teacher, but the students only tried to manipulate her. She had tried to be a
motivating and positive teacher, but the students only listened to her when she screamed.
And now she was tired. Tired of the disrespectful, talkative class, she had decided she
would not allow any more opportunities for the students to misbehave. She had no
choices left; she would have to be mean.
“Chop!” Ms. Hensen’s head whipped around; “who was that, and what did they just
say” she thought.
“Chop!!!” Again, but this time from the other end of the classroom.
“Chop! Chop! Chop!” The sound was coming from everywhere, from everyone – but
never from the student who Ms. Hensen was looking at.
“Chop chop chop chop chop!!!!” Ms. Hensen’s face was turning red. She didn’t know
what to do. The students were revolting but she couldn’t even catch who was doing it.
“CHOP!”
“TIMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!” And with that, all the students fell out of their desks and onto the
floor.
As the students laughed and congratulated themselves on their jobs well-done, Ms.
Hensen realized “they don’t respect anything I say.”
Real World Examples: Poetry
“We Real Cool”
Gwendolyn Brooks
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
Real World Examples: Art
Real World Examples: Passage
Excerpt From Black Boy, by Richard Wright
That night in my rented room, while letting the hot water run over my
can of pork and beans in the sink, I opened A Book of Prefaces and
began to read. I was jarred and shocked by the style, the clear, clean,
sweeping sentences. Why did he write like that? And how did one
write like that? I pictured the man as a raging demon, slashing with
his pen, consumed with hate, denouncing everything American,
extolling everything European or German, laughing at the weaknesses
of people, mocking God, authority. What was this? I stood up, trying
to realize what reality lay behind the meaning of the words . . . Yes,
this man was fighting, fighting with words. He was using words as a
weapon, using them as one would use a club. Could words be
weapons? Well, yes, for here they were. Then, maybe, perhaps, I could
use them as a weapon? No. It frightened me. I read on and what
amazed me was not what he said, but how on earth anybody had the
courage to say it. . . .