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Metaphors
Definition of Mood
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect of a piece of writing... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes... read full definition
Mood
Explanation and Analysis:
The mood of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” changes from lighthearted to horrifying over the course of the story as Connie goes from being a typical teenager to a victim of psychological manipulation and coercion by a much older man. The following passage captures the happy and lighthearted mood in the first part of the story:
Connie sat with her eyes closed in the sun, dreaming and dazed with the warmth about her as if this were a kind of love, the caresses of love, and her mind slipped over onto thoughts of the boy she had been with the night before and how nice he had been, how sweet it always was.
Here Connie sits in the sun in her backyard “dreaming and dazed with the warmth about her as if this were a kind of love,” thinking about Eddie, the boy she had a romantic dalliance with the night before. She calls Eddie “nice” and their encounter “sweet,” adding to the joyful and serene nature of this scene.
Compare the mood in this moment to the one in the following, which comes after Arnold shows up at Connie’s house and tells her through the door about how he’s going to rape her:
She backed away from the door. She put her hands up against her ears as if she'd heard something terrible, something not meant for her. "People don't talk like that, you're crazy," she muttered. Her heart was almost too big now for her chest and its pumping made sweat break out all over her.
The way that Connie “back[s] away from the door” here and “put[s] her hands up against her ears as if she’d heard something terrible” communicates the disgust and fear that she feels in this moment (disgust and fear that readers likely feel as well). She chastises Arnold, but “mutters” it, suggesting she is too afraid to speak up and that Arnold is starting to overpower her psychologically. The description of Connie’s heart being “almost too big now for her chest” and leading her to break out in sweat further adds to the unsettling and frightening mood in this moment.
Related Themes:
