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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:
The narrator’s tone in “The Pedestrian” is both wistful and resentful. Though the protagonist Mead is not the narrator, the narrator stays very close to Mead’s perspective, sometimes channeling the man's thoughts directly via a technique called free indirect discourse. The following passage captures the way that the narrator channels Mead’s mournful and bitter tone as longs for a better world:
He hadn't written in years. Magazines and books didn't sell any more. Everything went on in the tomblike houses at night now, he thought, continuing his fancy. The tombs, ill-lit by television light, where the people sat like the dead, the gray or multicolored lights touching their faces, but never really touching them.
The first two sentences in this passage are simple and curt in ways that suggest frustration and bitterness. After this, the narrator captures one of Mead’s resentful thoughts (“Everything went on in the tomblike houses at night now”) before channeling Mead’s frustration directly by, again, referring to houses as “tombs,” and then describing the “dead” people inside these houses.
The resentful tone comes across most in the final words in the passage, in which the narrator explains how, though it may seem like the lights of the television are touching the faces of its viewers, the lights are “never really touching them.” The italics here communicate Mead's anger and despair over the fact that people believe they are finding camaraderie and community through their devices, when that sort of connection is not actually material, felt, or real.
Related Themes:
