MOOD VS. TONE
Learning Target I can analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone.
Tone Tone is the author s (or narrator s) attitude toward the writing (the characters, the situation) and the reader. A work of writing can have more than one tone. Tone is set by setting, choice of vocabulary, and other details.
Words that describe tone Amused Angry Cheerful Horror Clear Formal Gloomy Humorous Informal Ironic Light Matter-of-fact Optimistic Pessimistic Playful Pompous Serious Witty
Example And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don t know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn t the best. We complained about it. So we ve got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we ve got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing.
Example And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don t know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn t the best. We complained about it. So we ve got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we ve got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing. Gloomy
Mood Mood is the general atmosphere created by the author s words. It is the feeling the reader gets from reading those words. It may be the same, or it may change from situation to situation.
Moody Mary Poppins take 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=dfi28tetqim Write 3 words that describe the mood.
Moody Mary Poppins take 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=2t5_0agdfic Write 3 words to describe the mood.
Words the describe mood Fanciful Frightening Gloomy Happy Joyful Melancholy Mysterious Romantic Sentimental Sorrowful Suspenseful
What s the mood?
What s the mood?
On your own! Jessica walked slowly through the hallway. Come out, come out, wherever you are! she yelled. Since the room was dark, she had to feel around for the doorknob to the dining room. As her hand closed around the cool brass knob, she gave it a firm twist to the right, opening the door to the dining hall with a satisfying bang. The long table was illuminated by a stream of moonlight from a large bay window to her right, allowing her to see enough to enter the room. She giggled with nervousness as she took a few steps forward, stopping short at the sight of something shadowy moving in the corner. * Mood + justification using textual evidence * Tone + justification using textual evidence
It was a mighty nice family, and a mighty nice house, too. I hadn t seen no house out in the country before that was so nice and had so much style. It didn t have an iron latch on the front door, nor a wooden one with a buckskin string, but a brass knob to turn, the same as houses in a town. There warn t no bed in the parlor, not a sign of a bed; but heaps of parlors in towns had beds in them. There was a big fireplace that was bricked on the bottom, and the bricks was kept clean and red by pouring water on them and scrubbing them with another brick; sometimes they washed them over with red water-paint that they call Spanish-brown, same as they do in town...there was a clock on the middle of the mantelpiece, with a picture of a town painted on the bottom half of the glass front, and a round place in the middle of it for the sun, and you could see the pendulum swing behind it. It was beautiful to hear that clock tick... * Mood + justification using textual evidence * Tone + justification using textual evidence
"If it wasn't for the mist, we could see your home, across the bay," said Gatsby. "You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock." Daisy put her arm through his abruptly, but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy, it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one. * Mood + justification using textual evidence * Tone + justification using textual evidence
Mood & Tone Learning Check Describe the mood of Nightmare in Yellow throughout the story. Justify your answer using 2 specific word choices from the story. For each, explain how it conveys the mood. Describe the tone employed by the narrator in Nightmare in Yellow throughout the story. Justify your answer using 2 specific word choices from the story. For each, explain how it conveys the tone.