Transcript MOOD & TONE What is mood?

MOOD &
TONE
What is mood?
• Just like people have a variety
of moods and feelings, literature
does as well.
• MOOD- is the feeling or emotion
the writer creates in a literary
work.
By working carefully
with descriptive
language, the writer can
evoke in the reader a
variety of emotional
responses.
Some emotional responses,
or moods created might
include…
Horrified
Sad/Depressed
Humorous/Funny
Yearning/Wanting
Discomfort/Uneasiness/
Tense
Fear
Anticipation
TONE
• Tone and Mood go hand-in-hand.
• TONE is the speaker’s/writer’s
attitude toward the subject
matter and/or story.
• The speaker’s tone will create
the mood through selective and
careful word choice, sentence
structure and voice.
Examples:
It was Monday again. It was Monday and the day
was damp and cold. Rain splattered the cover of
Algebra I as Laura heaved her books higher on her arm
and sighed. School was such a bore.
School. It loomed before her now, massive and
dark against the sky. In a few minutes, she would have
to face them again—Diane Goodard with her sleek blond
hair and Terri Pierce in her candy-pink sweater. And
Carol and Steve and Bill and Nancy….There were so
many of them, so exclusive as they stood in their tight
little groups laughing and joking.
What is the
tone/mood?
EXAMPLES:
It was a warm, humid night, the last hot breath of
the summer that had been. When Eve stepped onto the
patio, she felt almost suffocated by the fragrance that
filled the air, the thick, clotted scent of decaying
vegetation. The limp leaves on the trees were edged
with brown. A heavy dew clung to the plants and
shrubbery and weighed them down. Rotting mushrooms
glowed faintly and seemed to pulse. A waning moon
slipped in and out behind streaks of clouds. In the pool
floated a dead goldfish. Its white belly was turned up, a
mirror image to the moon in the sky.
What is the tone/mood?
HOW BIRDS SHOULD DIE
Not like hailstones
Ricocheting off concrete
Nor vaporized through
jets nor drubbed
against windshields
not in flocks
plunged down into cold sea
by sudden weather no
please no but
Like stricken cherubim
Spreading on winds
their tiny engines
Suddenly taken out
By small pains
They sigh and float down on
Sunlit updrafts
Drifting through treetops
To tumble gently
How Birds Should Die
• Does the mood/tone change at all within the poem?
• If so, at what point does it change?
• What is the tone/mood at the beginning? The end?
• Identify specific words throughout the poem that
helps to create the mood.
“The Ground Is Always Damp”
• What is Leona feeling
throughout the story?
• What is the overall mood of this
story?
• There is a strong contrast between
Leona’s old home in New Mexico to her
new home.
• What words does the writer use to create
the tone & mood in describing each
place?
New Mexico (home)
• Clear & empty sky
• Deep blue-Turquoise
• Mountains
• Clean air
• Clear horizon line
• Bright
New Residence
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Cloudy (often)
Damp ground
Gray
Thick air
Frost
Windy
Cold
No Mountains
Rains (often/constant)
Pours steadily
Brown streams form