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Tone is the expression of the author's attitude toward his or her audience and subject matter. It can also be the expression of the speaker or narrator's attitude toward his or her listener or subject matter. And sometimes it's a little of both. It is the feeling that grows out of the material, the feeling that the writer creates for the reader. There are as many different tones as there are feelings: serious, lighthearted, playful, sarcastic, accepting, and so forth. The trick is to be able to identify tone in reading and create tone in writing.
It's easy to understand tone in spoken language. If your mother says, "Don't use that tone of voice with me!," you know exactly what she means. You have expressed a disrespectful feeling through what you said but especially how you said it. And you understand her tone all too well: She is angry with you. We understand tone in speech by listening not only to words but to the way words are said and by seeing the facial expressions of those who say them.
Here's another example. Take the single word "right" and consider the many different ways you can say it to suggest an attitude. See if you can express the different attitudes that underlie the word "right" listed below. Work with a partner.
How would you say the following:
Consider:
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
— Martin Luther King, jr., I have a dream
Consider:
When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little—a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it—you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily—until, at length a simple dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye. It was open—wide, wide open—and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness—all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old man's face or person: for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot.
— Edgar Allen Poe, Tell Tale Heart
Discuss:
Identify two examples of figurative language. Are they similes or metaphors? Identify the tenor and the vehicle.
What does the figurative language add to the passage?
What other literary devices are used here? How do they work together to create a spooky, creepy atmosphere?
It's harder to understand and create tone in writing since you can't depend on vocal and facial expressions. But it can be done. Just as we understand tone in speech from what is said and how it's said, the same is true in writing. It just takes more practice to see it. We create tone in writing through all of the elements of voice:
1. Diction
2. Detail
3. Figurative language
4. Imagery
5. Syntax
Consider:
.... Yes, one of the brightest gems in the New England weather is the dazzling uncertainty of it .... You fix up for the drought; you leave your umbrella in the house and sally out, and two to one you get drowned. You make up your mind that the earthquake is due; you stand from under, and take hold of something to steady yourself, and the first thing you know you get struck by lightning. These are great disappointments; but they can't be helped. The lightning there is peculiar; it is so convincing, that when it strikes a thing it doesn't leave enough of that thing behind for you to tell whether-Well, you'd think it was something valuable, and a Congressman had been there. And the thunder. When the thunder begins to merely tune up and scrape and saw, and key up the instruments for the performance, strangers say, "Why, what awful thunder you have here!" But when the baton is raised and the real concert begins, you'll find that stranger down in the cellar with his head in the ash-barrel .... I could speak volumes about the inhuman perversity of the New England weather, but I will give but a single specimen. I like to hear rain on a tin roof. So I covered part of my roof with tin, with an eye to that luxury. Well, sir, do you think it ever rains on that tin? No, sir; skips it every time.
— Mark Twain, "The Weather," Address to the New England Society's Seventy First Annual Dinner, New York City
Discuss:
This passage is from the first part of a speech by Mark Twain about New England weather. What is the tone of the passage?
What elements make up the tone?
Brainstorm tone words that fit this passage and add new words to your "Tone Words" list.
Consider:
The Navy guy and I told each other we were glad to've met each other. Which alwas kills me. I'm always saying "Glad to've met you" to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive you have to say that stuff, though.
— J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
What is the narrator's attitude toward people, in general (as in towards humans as a whole)? How do you know? Explain how the following elements of voice help you to identify the narrator's attitude.
Diction:
Navy guy
stuff
Syntax:
Use of sentence fragments
Use of italics
Hyperbole:
always kills me
if you want to stay alive
How would the tone be different if Salinger had written it like this? John and I told each other we were glad to've met each other. I'm not sure I really meant it. I'm always saying "Glad to've met you" to somebody I'm not sure I'm glad I met.
Consider:
I'm boiling with rage, and yet I mustn't show it. I'd like to stamp my feet, scream, give Mummy a good shaking, cry, and I don't know what else, because of the horrible words, mocking looks, and accusations which are leveled at me repeatedly every day, and finding their mark, like shafts from a tightly strung bow, and which are just as hard to draw from my body.
— Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
What is the tone of the passage?
Examine the different elements and discuss how the choice adds to the tone of the overall section of text.
Diction: boiling
Detail: I'd like to stamp my feet, scream, give Mummy a good shaking,
Syntax: The difference in sentence lengths between sentence one and two
Imagery: a tightly strung bow
Figurative Language: like shafts from a tightly strung bow, and which are just as hard to draw from my body.
Consider:
We went with sandwiches, thick, poor-man's ham from Aldi's supermarket, slapped onto wheat bread and slathered with a thin film of mayonnaise.
— Mawi Asgedom, Of Beetles & Angels: A Boy's Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard
What is the speaker's attitude towards the sandwiches?
How did you figure out the speaker's attitude towards the sandwiches?
Now You Try: Write a sentence that explains your attitude towards a dinner you had recently. Do not say what your attitude is, but make it evident with the diction and details.
Consider:
Turning off my headlamp, I freeze in the darkness. I sit quietly wait to hear the noise again. Suddenly something scuttles in the leaves on the ground. My heart beats faster. What is it? Could it be a snake?
— Rene Ebersole, "Night Shift," National Geographic Explorer, October 2004
What is the tone of the passage? How does the syntax help create the tone? Look especially at the use of verb tense, sentence length, and questions.
How would the tone of the passage change if it were written like this?
I turned off my headlamp and froze in the darkness. I quietly waited to hear the noise again. Suddenly something scuttled in the leaves scattered on the ground. My heart beat faster. I wondered what it was and if it could have been a snake.
Now You Try: Change the tone of the following paragraph by changing the syntax. In order to do that, change the verbs from the past tense to the present tense. Then combine some sentences to create longer sentences, but keep your most important ideas in short sentences. Finally, turn the last sentence into two questions.
I stopped suddenly and looked around me. I could not hear a sound. There was no traffic. I couldn't see anyone walking around in the park. Everything was too still. I wondered if something had happened and where everyone had gone.
Consider:
I stood up nervously, wondering what it could be. I felt my classmates' piercing eyes as I mechnically left the classroom. Teacher Hou walked ahead of me without seeming to notice my presence. I followed silently.
— Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl: A memoir of the Cultural Revolution
What is the tone of the passage? This passage is told in first person. That is, the speaker (I) is a character. How does that affect the tone?
Find one example of each of the elements of voice (diction, detail, and syntax) and explain how the example helps create the tone.
Consider:
It is my belief that no writer can improve his work until he discards the dulcet notion that the reader is feebleminded, for writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar...a writer who questions the capacity of the person at the other end of the line is not a writer at all, merely a schemer.
— E.B. White, "Calculating Machine," Red Scarf Girl: Poems and Sketches of E.B. White
What is E.B. White's attitude towards the people who read his writing? How does his diction reveal and reinforce this attitude?
What is the tone of the passage? How do you know?
Now You Try: Write a few sentences that express your views about the relationship between the writer and the reader. Create a serious and straightforward tone in your sentences.
Consider:
But that is Cooper’s way; frequently he will explain and justify little things that do not need it and then make up for this by as frequently failing to explain important ones that do need it. For instance he allowed that astute and cautious person, Deerslayer-Hawkeye, to throw his rifle heedlessly down and leave it lying on the ground where some hostile Indians would presently be sure to find it – a rifle prized by that person above all things else in the earth – and the reader gets no word of explanation of that strange act. There was a reason, but it wouldn’t bear exposure. Cooper meant to get a fine dramatic effect out of the finding of the rifle by the Indians, and he accomplished this at the happy time; but all the same, Hawkeye could have hidden the rifle in a quarter of a minute where the Indians could not have found it. Cooper couldn’t think of any way to explain why Hawkeye didn’t do that, so he just shirked the difficulty and did not explain at all.
— Mark Twain, "Cooper's Prose Style," Letters from the Earth
What is Twain’s tone in this passage? What is central to the tone of this passage: the attitude toward the speaker, the subject, or the reader?
How does Twain create the tone?
Now You Try: Write a paragraph about a movie you have recently seen. Create a critical, disparaging tone through your choice of details. Use Twain’s paragraph as a model. Share your paragraph with the class.
Consider:
It’s his first exposure to Third World passion. He thought only Americans had informed political opinion – other people staged coups out of spite and misery. It’s an unwelcome revelation to him that a reasonably educated and rational man like Ro would die for things that he, Brent, has never heard of and would rather laugh about. Ro was tortured in jail. Franny has taken off her earphones. Electrodes, canes, freezing tanks. He leaves nothing out. Something’s gotten into Ro. Dad looks sick.
The meaning of Thanksgiving should not be so explicit.
— Bharati Mukherjee, "Orbiting"
What is the narrator's attitude towards Brent (Dad)? Cite your evidence.
How does the syntax in this passage help create the tone?
Now You Try: Rewrite the last sentences in the first paragraph, making the five short sentences into two longer sentences. Read your rewritten sentences to a partner and discuss how the longer sentences affect the tone of the passage.
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