Tone and Mood Tone • Tone: The writer’s attitude towards the subject of the piece, the audience, and self. Tone • Tone shows INTENT. • Tone can turn a statement like, " You're a big help!" into a genuine compliment or a cruel sarcastic remark. It depends on the context of the story. Is the author’s intent to make the listener feel appreciated or useless? • We use different tones for friends, parents, or authority figures. • What words would you use to agree or disagree with: • Your friends? • Your teachers? • The President? Words that describe TONE • • • • • • • • Amused Angry Cheerful Critical Clear Formal Gloomy Humorous • • • • • • • • Informal Ironic Light Matter-of-fact Mocking Resigned Optimistic Pessimistic • • • • • • • • Playful Pompous Sad Serious Sincere Suspicious Quizzical Witty Tone examples Teacher: “You have homework tonight.” Sarcastic tone: “Awesome! I love homework, can you give us MORE homework pleeeeeaaase?” Matter-of-fact tone: “Ok” Disappointed tone: “Can we please not have homework tonight?” Optimistic tone: “Good, I need more practice because I didn’t understand the lesson today.” Immature tone: “You hate us, that why you give us homework! My life sucks!” Mood • Mood shows FEELINGS • Mood: emotion evoked by a text. • Writers use many devices to create the mood in a text: – Dialogue (language between the characters) – Setting (where/when the story takes place, who the characters are, etc.) – Events or plot How do you feel when you agree or disagree with: • Your friends? • Your teachers? • The President? Words to describe MOOD • • • • • • • • • Light-hearted Playful Tender Warm Hopeful Peaceful Idyllic Joyous Inclusive • • • • • • • • • Welcoming Liberating Tense Gloomy Violent Pessimistic Cold Confining Haunting • • • • • • Suspenseful Foreboding Painful Threatening Terrifying Lonely Mood Examples At midnight the graveyard was normally silent as death, but not tonight. Tonight, the graveyard was filled with screams of the undead crawling out of their graves to feed on human flesh. Celebrations had begun well before the graduation ceremony started and would continue long after it finished. Tone vs. Mood • These two words are easy to get confused when reading a text. Tone vs. Mood Venn Diagram Mood Tone Similarities • • Tone is the attitude that an author takes toward the audience, the subject, or the character. • Tone is conveyed through the author's words and details. • Use context clues to help determine the tone. • Author sets the tone through words. • Possible tones are as numerous as the number of possible emotions a human being can have. • INTENT • • Conveyed by an emotion or emotions through words The way a reader feels about a piece (the reader’s mood) can be determined through facial expressions, gestures and in the tone (the way the author expresses his/her feelings throughout the piece) of voice used. • • • Emotions that you (the reader) feel while you are reading a piece. Some pieces of literature make you feel sad, angry or happy. Often, a writer creates the mood at the beginning of a piece and then carries that same mood throughout the whole piece. FEELINGS • SOMETIMES the mood will change as characters or plot changes. BEWARE!! • Tone and mood can very easily be confused! • Tone simply refers to how the author feels towards the subject, or towards something. You will know what the author’s tone is implying by the words he uses. • While ‘mood’, refers to the feeling of the atmosphere the author is describing. It is what the author makes you feel when you read his writings. You can read a sentence, and feel terrified, depressed or in love. Examples of Tone • I’d rather stay here and wait, than go into that dark room. – This sentences demonstrates that the author is afraid. • The sun is shining brightly in the meadow, let’s go out and play! – This sentence shows that the author is happy and carefree! • I called my friend at their house, her brother said she’s not home, but I heard her voice come over the line. – This sentences creates suspicion . . . Someone is lying! Examples of Mood • The night was dark and stormy. – The sentence gives you a scary ‘mood’ (or feeling). • The man kicked and threw the poor cat out of his house. – The sentence gives you a feeling of anger, or pity towards the cat. • There was plenty of food, and the music was playing. Everybody was having a good time. – The sentence gives you a mood (or feeling) of community, happiness and fun. Tone is NOT Mood • FOR EXAMPLE: He approached the task with sheer determination. He had studied his plans carefully, spent weeks preparing and was proud of his results. The days he spent practicing were grueling and exhausting but he was ready. He was finally read to hand in his English homework. Tone is NOT Mood He approached the task with sheer determination. He had studied his plans carefully, spent weeks preparing and was proud of his results. The days he spent practicing were grueling and exhausting but he was ready. He was finally read to hand in his English homework. What is the tone? Serious. Focused. Intense. Tone is NOT Mood He approached the task with sheer determination. He had studied his plans carefully, spent weeks preparing and was proud of his results. The days he spent practicing were grueling and exhausting but he was ready. He was finally read to hand in his English homework. What is the mood? Ironic? Silly? Humorous? Tone is NOT Mood – Advanced! • Tone and Mood can be opposite. • Tone: Serious. Mood: Humorous. • Tone: Humorous. Mood: Frightening. • If the tone and the mood are not similar, this can create irony. • Which story do you find creepier? A funny story about a killer? Or a violent story about a funny person? • Which story would you rather read? A love story in a haunted house? Or a story about 2 ghosts in a haunted house falling in love?
