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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:
Richard's tone, as the narrator of the text, changes as Richard does throughout the book. At the beginning of the memoir, Richard is terribly naive about the world and has difficulty understanding the emotional reactions of others, especially those of authority figures. The most gruesome instance of this literal worldview is very early in the memoir, when Richard takes his father's statement to kill a kitten literally, and the four-year-old Richard hangs it with a noose.
Throughout the memoir, especially in Part I, Richard genuinely does not understand many of the angry injunctions that his mother, grandmother, or other authority figures make toward him. This naivete and confusion creates Richard's characteristic tone of earnest good will combined with premature world-weariness and confusion. There are several scenes in the novel where Richard says something apparently innocuous, but is accidentally taken to be rude or insubordinate by a family member or a White person and is punished severely for it. These scenes often make Richard's tone pitifully confused, as he struggles to understand what he did wrong.
Later in Part I, Richard comes to more fully understand the relationship between Black and White people and finds that he is unwilling to submit to White people. He struggles throughout the book with authority and finds that whenever someone tells him to do something, he usually cannot do it. As a result, the tone becomes rebellious and quietly bold, as Richard begins to assert his personal assuredness in himself over his life. Richard believes that he is different from everyone around him, White or Black. This growing self-confidence is imbued with a constant fear of violence and punishment, creating a tone of ever-present anxiety.
Part II takes place during the Great Depression and Richard is generally much more mature, well-read, and intelligent than in Part I. This creates a much more cynical tone than in Part I. In Part II, Richard does not experience, for the most part, the physical violence of Part I, nor the debilitating hunger and poverty. As such the tone loses some of the anxiety and tension of the early chapters. The cynicism is directed instead toward the Communist Party. Richard is initially skeptical of the party before joining it, but eventually renounces it at the end of the book. As the book concludes, Richard understands—as the Communists do not—that a man is formed through suffering. He sees that through writing, he can "keep alive in our hearts a sense of the inexpressibly human." Armed with this belief in his own humanity, the novel ends with a tone of cautious hope.
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