Transcript Tone and Mood - Mrs. Brown's English Classes

TONE AND MOOD
What’s the Dif?
LET’S TAKE A LOOK…SHALL WE?!
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Tone and Mood
LET’S RECAP!
Tone: How the author thinks about the subject.
It’s the author’s attitude toward what they have
written.
 Mood: The effect of the writer’s words on the
reader. How the writer’s words make us feel.
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TONE
Has anyone ever said to you, "Don't use that
tone of voice with me?"
 Your tone can change the meaning of what you
say.
 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.
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WHAT ELEMENTS CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF TONE?
Your opinion concerning a given topic/subject
affects the tone of an essay you write.
 Tone is developed by the language you use in your
writing. (DICTION)
 The audience to whom your essay is intended to
appeal affects its tone. For example, your tone
when speaking to children would be very different
from the tone you use when speaking to your
peers.
 Your use of rhetorical devices can greatly affect
the tone you are presenting to a reader.
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EXAMPLES?
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Angry
Annoyed
Anxious
Cautious
Confused
Disappointed
Discouraged
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Disgusted
Frustrated
Hopeful
Paranoid
Passionate
Proud
Sarcastic
MOVIE MAKING EXAMPLE
Movie makers strive to set a certain tone and
mood for their work
 Just like an author uses choice of words (diction)
and vivid imagery to set the tone and mood, movie
makers use dialogue, editing, music and lighting to
establish a certain tone within their films
 We will watch two trailers with very different tonesthese will create a substantially unique mood for
the audience (you)!
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JUST WATCH…
Dumb and Dumber 1
 Dumb and Dumber 2
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LET’S TRY…
Mary Poppins (original 1964)
 Watch the clip
 Select three tone words that best represent the
attitude of the trailer’s creators
 Let’s discuss-what did you select?
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LET’S TRY THIS ONE…
Mary Poppins (Re-cut)
 Watch the trailer
 The makers of this clip are attempting to take a
classic movie, and re-cut it in a way that
represents an entirely new genre of film
 They use editing, music, dialogue and sound
effects
 They are creating a completely different mood
 How have they relayed tone and established
mood?
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EXAMPLES IN WRITING
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"Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that
countenance. A mummy again endued with
animation could not be so hideous as that
wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he
was ugly then; but when those muscles and
joints were rendered capable of motion, it
became a thing such as even Dante could not
have conceived." - Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
CATCHER IN THE RYE
"Goddamn money. It always ends up making
you blue as hell."
 "Catholics are always trying to find out if you're
Catholic."
 "If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who
gives a damn if she's late? Nobody."
 "People never believe you."
 "All morons hate it when you call them a
moron."
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One of the most well known characters in all of
literature, Holden Caulfield, has an undeniable
tone in Catcher in the Rye.
 He is sarcastic, tough, and inquisitive.
 He also makes poignant observations through
his rather biting tone.
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SALINGER
Holden tends to speak sarcastically; however,
he is making satirical statements about the
nature of life.
 That is exactly what J.D. Salinger's purpose
was.
 He wanted to write a coming of age narrative
about a boy navigating through life alone and
observing and criticizing the world around him.
 Through the establishment of Holden's tone,
Salinger does just that.
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WHAT’S THE TONE?
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The words hideous, wretch, and ugly all set a
frightening tone that suggests possible horror
or fear.
ANOTHER QUOTE
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"Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds,
which I should first break through, and pour a
torrent of light into our dark world." Frankenstein
TONE?
Victor speaks these words at the very beginning
of the novel, setting an ominous mood for the
rest of the tale.
 Ominous-gloomy, dark, menacing
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WHEN DECIDING ON TONE, ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS:
1. What is the passage’s subject, and who is its audience?
2. What would you say are the most important words in the
passage? What connotations, or associations, do these
words have?
3. What general feeling do the passage’s images create?
4. Are there any hints that the narrator/speaker/author
does not really mean everything he or she says?
5. Does the narrator/speaker/author make any jokes? If
so, are these jokes lighthearted, bitter, or something
else?
6. If the narrator/speaker/author were speaking aloud,
what tone of voice would he or she be using?
FOR EACH EXAMPLE:
Identify the tone
 What context clues are used to convey the tone
 Overall mood of the sentence.
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YOU TRY
Bouncing into the room, she lit up the vicinity
with a joyous glow on her face as she told
about her fiancé and their wedding plans.
 Tone: cheerful, celebratory, happy, gleeful
 Context: bouncing, lit up, joyous glow on her
face
 Mood: hopeful-about wedding, joyous for this
girl, touched, sentimental
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TRY AGAIN!
She huddled in the corner, clutching her
tattered blanket and shaking convulsively, as
she feverishly searched the room for the
unknown dangers that awaited her.
 Tone: desperate, frantic, frightened, hopeless,
tense, threatening
 Context: huddled, clutching, shaking, dangers
 Mood: haunting, worried, scared, nightmarish
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ANOTHER ONE!
Bursting through the door, the flustered mother
screamed uncontrollably at the innocent
teacher who gave her child an F.
 Tone: angry, annoyed, belligerent, disrespectful
 Context: bursting, screamed, innocent
 Mood: threatening, aggravated, annoyed, cold,
stressed, enraged, uncomfortable, vengeful
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ONE MORE!
Drawing the attention of his classmates as well
as his teacher, the student dared to experiment
with his professor’s intelligence by interrogating
him about the Bible.
 Tone: conceited, cynical, exhilarated, selfassured
 Context: dared, intelligence, interrogating
 Mood: anxious, irate, intimidated, nervous,
empowered
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OK-ONE MORE AGAIN!
He furtively (sneakily) glanced behind him, for
hear of his imagined pursuers, then hurriedly
walked on, jumping at the slightest sound even
of a leaf crackling under his own foot.
 Tone: fearful, frantic, frightened,
 Context: furtively, imagined, hurriedly, jumping,
crackling
 Mood: scared, suspenseful
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ONE MORE….LOL
Gently smiling, the mother tenderly tucked the
covers up around the child’s neck, and
carefully, quietly, left the room making sure to
leave a comforting ray of light shining through
the opened door should the child wake.
 Tone: affectionate, calm, tranquil
 Context: gently, tenderly, carefully, quietly
 Mood: peaceful, joyous, touched, sentimental,
relaxed, loving
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LAST ONE! I PROMISE 
The laughing wind skipped through the village,
teasing trees until they danced with anger and
cajoling the grass into fighting itself, blade
slapping blade, as the silly dog with golf ball
eyes and flopping, slobbery tongue bounded
across the lawn.
 Tone: excited, happy, bemused
 Context: laughing, skipped, teasing, silly
 Mood: cheerful, light-hearted, playful
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