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Definition of Tone
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical, and so on. For instance... read full definition
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical... read full definition
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical... read full definition
Tone
Explanation and Analysis:
Because of Salinger’s stylistic choice to use the third-person omniscient voice, the tone of “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” is almost detached in its distance from the characters.
However, it is also conversational, punctuated by a dry sense of humor. This comes through in some of the descriptions. For example:
She looked as if her phone had been ringing continually ever since she had reached puberty.
This slight exaggeration is startlingly funny and evocative, poking fun at Muriel’s extreme nonchalance.
Another example is the following description of Sybil:
She was wearing a canary-yellow two-piece bathing suit, one piece of which she would not actually be needing for another nine or ten years.
Here, we get some wry judgment on the unnecessary gendering of young children’s clothing, which ironically imposes an inappropriate sexuality on their bodies in the name of modesty.
The aloof, ironic tone of the narrator contributes to a sense of flat reality. Out of this flatness, the characters’ sometimes surreal actions and dialogue emerge alarmingly. The perfect calm of the tone maximizes the growing dread on the part of the reader and makes Seymour’s suicide at the end of the story all the more piercing.
Related Themes:
