In literature, tone refers to the author's attitude (as a narrator) towards the theme of the story and its readers. The author reveals the tone through the choice of words. To recognize the tone, it will make a difference to fully understand the meaning of the story or not understand it at all. You can analyze the tone by looking for specific elements within the novel or short story. Literature professors often recommend keeping DFDLS letters in mind when analyzing the tone of a text. These stand for diction, figures of speech, details, language and syntax (sentence structure).
Steps
Step 1. Pay attention to the diction
When speaking, diction refers to how words are pronounced. In literature, however, it refers to the choice of words by the author, whether they are abstract or concrete, generic or specific, formal or informal.
- Abstract words are those that are perceived through the senses, while concrete words can be perceived and measured. For example, the word "yellow" is concrete, while the word "pleasure" is abstract. Abstract words "tell" and are used to move quickly through events. Concrete words "show" and are used in crucial scenes because they transport the reader into the story alongside the protagonists.
- Generic words are vague, such as "car" or "cat". They are concrete words but they can be attributed to any "machine" and to any "cat", so the reader can imagine them as he sees fit. Conversely, specific words like "Siamese" or "Ferrari" restrict the reader's field of imagination.
- Formal words are long, technical and uncommon and are used by authors to make themselves or their protagonists seem highly cultured or simply pompous. Informal words include abbreviations and jargon and are reminiscent of the normal way of speaking for many people.
Step 2. Observe the figures of speech
This type of descriptive language reveals what the author or the character think and feel about what is happening.
An author who describes a character swimming in a hot water pond and perceives it as a hot bath is suggesting that the pond is inviting, relaxing and restful. If the author described the same swim as "simmering in a pond", he would like to suggest annoyance and disquiet
Step 3. Study the details
No author is able to include in the story every fact about a character, a scene or an event. Included and omitted details are an important indicator of tone.
An author can represent a house by describing the cheerful and colorful flowers that he has in his garden, an image that recalls a place and happy inhabitants. Another author may omit the detail of the flowers and describe the peeling paint and dirty glass, suggesting a sad home inhabited by sad people
Step 4. Listen to the language
The author chooses words based on their connotation, on what they suggest beyond their literal meaning, to reveal to the reader what he thinks about the topic he is writing about.
- An author who uses the word "little dog" suggests affection for the animal, while an author who does not love or is afraid of dogs will use the word "bastard". An author who refers to a child calling him a "brat" will have a different attitude from one who defines him as a "child".
- "Twilight" and "sunset" both describe the time of day between sunset and complete darkness, but suggest different things. "Twilight" has more to do with darkness than light, and suggests that the night is falling fast, taking all its scary things with it. On the contrary, "sunset" can suggest that dawn, and therefore a new departure, is near or that the sun is setting and marks the end of a difficult day.
- An author can choose words based solely on their sound. Words that sound good suggest that the author is telling pleasant things, while words with a hard sound can tell heavy and unpleasant events. For example, the sound of bells in the air can be either melodious (musical) or cacophonous (annoying).
Step 5. Break up the sentence structure
This is how the different sentences are constructed. The author varies the structure of his sentences to convey the tone of the story and can follow a pattern that is recognizable to the reader.
- In a sentence, the order of the words suggests which part to focus attention on. In general, the most important part is found at the end of the sentence: “John brings flowers” highlights what John brought, while “John brought the flowers” emphasizes who brought the flowers. By reversing the order of the words, the author transforms the person who brought the flowers into a surprise for the reader.
- Short sentences are more intense and immediate while long sentences create distance between the reader and the story. However, long phrases spoken by characters suggest thoughtfulness while short ones can be perceived as being unsound or disrespectful.
- Many authors deliberately break the rules of syntax to achieve the desired effect. For example, an author may decide to put the noun before his adjective (a rhetorical figure called anastrophe) to give more importance to the adjective and make the sentence more intense. "The day, dark and boring" stimulates the reader to pay close attention to the unusual nature of that day.
Advice
- The best authors often change the tone over the course of the story. Look for these changes and ask yourself why the author's tone has changed.
- The tone refers to how the author approaches the topic he is dealing with, while the mood represents how the author makes the reader feel about that topic.
