Tone

1 Pages 318 Words

Tone is a writer’s “attitude” or “voice.” Take a poem by Sylvia Plath—you should know the author even if her name does not appear. You can tell it’s plath by her cold, sarcastic, and sometimes brutal tone. Or take Robert Frost—all those vowels and assonance—you should know his writing even without his name attached. Or Emily Dickinson or Edgar A. Poe—their tone is unmistakeable. Which of you doesn’t know Bob Dylan when you hear him sing? Or Elvis—the tone is very distinctive.

Style is the way an author puts words, sentences and paragraphs together. Earnest Hemingway uses short words and sentences. He is like reading the newspaper—very simple. William Faulkner, on the other hand, uses long words and one sentence may run for pages and be filled with parenthetical expressions, many subordinate clauses, elipses, and etc. Style is the technical aspect of an author’s writing.

In “The Last Moon” by Andre Dubus the tone is cold and detached. This suits the subject because psychopaths are usually removed from their crimes—almost as if they are non-participants. The first sentence lets us know that this woman is not in control of her actions or thoughts—“The murder began someplace in her heart, a place she had never been. . . .” The style is direct and uncomplicated—mostly simple and compound sentences.

In “Triangle of Light” by Pamela Harrison the tone is wistful and nostalgic. She is remembering a moment in her life. The light here symbolizes love—God’s love for the world and our love for each other. She is stranded in the dark hallway while mother and brother talk in the light-flooded kitchen. They are enjoying the fullness of love while she is deprived. The realization that mother loves brother first and foremost drives a wedge between the three of them—the three points in this triangle. The style is a bit more complicated—making use of dashes and parenthetical expressions....