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Style
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
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis:
Helen Keller uses an earnest and positive tone in The Story of My Life. She strives to accurately convey each event. Even when describing the most difficult situations, she tells the truth and tries to put her struggles in a positive light. Her hardships take up fewer pages than her triumphs. Sometimes, she even tries to minimize her challenges. For example, she front-loads a sentence in Chapter 1 with a simple explanation of her illness and then finishes it with a description of her house:
I lived, up to the time of the illness that deprived me of my sight and hearing, in a tiny house consisting of a large square room and a small one, in which the servant slept.
Here, one might expect further details about her illness, but she sandwiches the fact of being "deprived of her sight and hearing" between seemingly less-significant details about her family home. This is also known as a loose sentence—a sentence in which the principal clause comes first and subordinate modifiers or trailing elements follow. In this case, the principal clause delivers the information that she lived in a house up until she fell ill, and the subordinate clause provides more precise information about the house and her family's servant. These trailing elements serve to minimize what came before them; Helen uses this kind of sentence to draw attention away from herself and to the history of her family and home. It exemplifies the earnest and positive tone of The Story of My Life that makes it both believable and moving.
Related Themes:
