Table of Contents
Introduction
An important strategy to assist students with developing their reading comprehension and reading analysis skills is by helping them to become more confident in deciphering the point of view mentioned by an author, which usually needs to be inferred, through teaching students how to understand the tone and mood of a literary work. Therefore, parents and teachers can provide students with important tools to help them identify the tone and mood within a text so they can notice the inferences made within the author’s work properly.
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
~ Harper Lee, American novelist of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
The strategies students can use to clarify the tone and mood within written fiction will assist them in clarifying the hidden messages and more profound meanings within short stories and poetry. Students must pay attention to the words and adjectives in the written work. Noticing how the author uses certain adjectives to describe certain characters, settings, or events helps students clarify the tone and mood being shared by the author.
Author’s Expression in Fictional Writing
Additionally, fictional works may be expressed by an author, through their characters or a narrator, to assist them in sharing their perspective on a particular subject that is the main subject of the work. Hence, it would help if you kept in mind that on most occasions, the protagonist of a story is used to assist the author in sharing their point of view about the main subject of the fictional work.
An example of an author utilizing characters to share their perspective on significant themes in life could be in, "Anne of Green Gables," by L.M. Montgomery. The author uses the main protagonist, Anne Shirley, to share their perspectives on particular life themes through the main protagonist's views. Therefore, you need to understand that the novel is written from the perspective of the narrator, which could help you draw an educated inference.
Hence, by noticing and knowing how to apply calculated interpretations of the tone and mood within a fictional piece of writing, you can confidently comprehend the author's general attitude and perspective towards their subject by identifying the representations of themes and meanings of the work.
Therefore, you need to utilize the different tools to comprehend the tone and mood indicated within specific fictional work to assist you in fully understanding, inferring, and writing an accurate analysis of a fictional work.
Tools to Assist in Identifying Tone and Mood for Reading Comprehension
Identify Adjectives and Adjective Phrases
It takes practice to comprehend the tone and mood of a fictional piece of literature to make proper conclusions about the main idea or primary purpose. Therefore, firstly, you should notice the adjectives and adjective phrases the author uses to assist them in conveying their intended tone and mood for their written work.
Additionally, you can work to notice how adjectives and adjective phrases may be within the context of specific subjects within a text to help you clarify the overall perspective, message, and meaning of the literary work that the author intended.
Dialogue and Expression within Narrative
Additionally, authors select words and phrases to assist them in delivering their messages figuratively, which aren’t necessarily adjectives or adjective phrases to describe settings, items, characters, or events. Therefore, you will want to notice how dialogue and the characters’ attitudes are portrayed within the text, which assisted the author in expressing their attitude or point of view, which was the central message within their original purpose of writing their literary work.
Inferred Emotions Portrayed within Literary Works
It would be best if you remembered that the author's tone could assist you in better understanding their perspective or attitude on a particular subject due to the intended delivery of their expression. You need to understand the objective for an author to write figuratively, as it helps them convey their intentional perspective more engagingly. Figurative writing not only assists them in delivering their point of view but also allows them to react to a potentially persuasive text.
It would be ideal for you to comprehend that readers are often encouraged to view different perspectives of a literary work by being engaged by various authors' points of view on particular themes of life. Therefore, an author will work towards engaging their readers in a literary discussion, which may be portrayed through fiction, to partake in a new perspective on a particular theme shared by the author. By being aware of the purpose of a published literary work and the objectives behind a literary analysis, it will be easier for you to comprehend and analyze the work.
Significance of Themes for Authors
Authors write to help their readers gain a deeper insight into their views of life through how they choose to portray their message. Therefore, it is helpful to understand that the tone will help you comprehend the author's attitude toward the subject. Additionally, interacting with the emotions portrayed by the author within a piece of literature will assist you in identifying the tone and point of view more readily, then clarifying the author's perspective towards a particular theme.
Reactions and Dialogue of Characters and Narrators
Additionally, a character or narrator's reactions to particular settings, interactions, or events help readers understand the character's feelings under a specific circumstance or situation. Recognizing the attitude conveyed towards an environment or position will help you gain insight into the author's perspective on the theme more effectively.
For example, a particular poem may convey certain emotions portrayed by a narrator, so an awareness of the work's tone and mood will assist you in deciphering the poem's meaning, primarily if you aren't used to reading or analyzing poems regularly.
Using Tone-Identifying Strategies to Read Poetry
Focusing on tone or mood by paying attention to adjectives or word choice can assist you in reading, comprehending, and analyzing a poem based on how the author chose to describe its subject, such as the setting, circumstance, or event. Recognizing the tone and moods behind a poem will help you more confidently understand the central message within a poem.
Additionally, by following the poem's plot and descriptions of the subject or subjects, you can more readily understand the author's perspectives conveyed through the poem's narration. When you consider the poem's plot, you can follow the structure outlined by the author as a guideline for analyzing the adjectives and descriptive phrases used to express the subjects. By recognizing whether the descriptions are positive or negative, for example, you will be more familiar with the intended message or central idea of the subject by the author of the poems.
To learn or review examples of the different literary devices, you can read this blog post about how to analyze literary fiction or this blog post about how to write a literary analysis essay if you are ready to start writing your analysis.
Objective Vs. Subjective Perspectives
It is essential to consider two main types of expressions conveyed in authors' works, objective or subjective. By recognizing whether an author's tone is objective, you will have more clarity on how the author's tone would be more informational and share facts and details to relay that information. However, if the work is more subjective, you will notice that the text will convey more emotion.
Objective Point of View
Objective written work shares a more opinion-based tone that helps you comprehend the author's point of view about the subject of their writing in a more literal manner. However, it is essential to remember that with subjective written works, the tone will express the author's opinions, feelings, or judgments, often delivered through the narrator's or characters' expressions within the fictional work.
However, some works by authors share perspectives on a subject based on their personal experiences; hence, they are delivered as informative pieces with a subjective undertone. For example, if an author has had a particular health issue and has decided to write about their circumstances, struggles, and outcomes, they may provide an informational piece. Although the content contains information, it may additionally convey an emotional tone, which could help you infer the author's perspective.
Subjective Point of View
Although fictional literature texts may be more intuitive in recognizing the author's emotions towards their subject, it is vital to understand how to recognize the objective tone within nonfiction-based writing. Therefore, you will want to realize that nonfiction work is more academic; the author must ensure credibility by being more informative. Thus, learning to identify an author's slant in their work will better equip you to identify a potentially hidden perspective on the subject effectively and more confidently.
Practice Drawing Conclusions
A subjective tone could be any human emotion or attitude. Some tones authors have conveyed in the past include compassionate, humorous, sentimental, suspenseful, nostalgic, adventurous, critical, rejoicing, curious, intense, or moralizing. However, it is essential to note that authors' perspectives are shared in the intended tone so their message is delivered engagingly so their readers may more readily draw from the author's message.
Therefore, you will want to practice reading specific contents and narratives to help you gain more confidence in recognizing the tones shared by using words to assist you in identifying different tonalities. Eventually, you will be more confident in concluding the authors' perspectives more easily. It takes practice, but in time, you will have more clarity and progressively share your inferences within your writing.
Figurative Language and Point of View
Another valuable tool for understanding an author's perspective is the figurative language used in the work. Figurative language helps the author describe what they want to interpret with more emphasis on sharing their expression. Therefore, recognizing the figurative language within a text makes it easier to understand the author's message. By identifying the clues within the literary work, you can be more confident in indicating the author's point of view regarding the subject.
To learn or review examples of the different literary devices, you can read this blog post about how to analyze literary fiction or this blog post about how to write a literary analysis essay if you are ready to start writing your analysis.
The Purpose of Figurative Language
Literary fictional works typically use an emotional tone that can convey any range of human emotion or attitude towards its subject. Therefore, the authors will use several methods to carry their intended message. An author chooses specific words and the arrangement of their selected words and writes them into figurative language by using literary devices.
Throughout your educational journey, you will be asked to learn how to analyze the details and imagery of figurative language. Therefore, it will be best to recognize the tone used within writing to identify the author's attitude and emotions within short stories, poetry, and other fictional literature.
Therefore, you will want to understand how to draw an inference to identify and confidently infer the author's attitude, point of view, and perspective. To draw inferences in fiction, you will want to understand better how to come to a reasonable conclusion based on the story's information.
Practice Time
Drawing inferences about the author's point of view, attitude, and perspective will take practice. Try to draw some inferences by reading the passages and responding to each question on a paper or document in the following section.
Passage 1:
"General Lafayette was received there in 1824, and there Samuel F.B. Morse first demonstrated the possibility of controlling an electric current in 1835... In 1855 it became a depot for the reception of immigrants; in 1890 the officers were removed to Ellis Island, and in 1896, after many postponements, Castle Garden was opened as a public aquarium."
[Source: Charles Hemstreet, Nooks and corners of old New York (New York: Charles Scribner's sons, 1899)]
How would you identify the tone conveyed in this passage?
What inference can you draw from the attitude or point of view shared by the narrator, character, or author in this passage?
What inference can you draw about the author’s attitude and perspective from this passage?
Passage 2:
"As Cavallo’s words suggest, there was a performative element to ballooning. Balloons were highly visible objects; Vincent Lunardi, who first brought the balloon to Britain, incorporated eye-catching colors and decorative flourishes to the already impressive forms of the balloon’s envelope and gondola."
[Source: This article / “For the Sake of the Prospect” Experiencing the World from Above in the Late 18th Century," by Lily Ford was originally published in The Public Domain Review: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/for-the-sake-of-the-prospect-experiencing-the-world-from-above-in-the-late-18th-century#1-3]
How would you identify the tone conveyed in this passage?
What inference can you draw from the attitude or point of view shared by the narrator, character, or author in this passage?
What inference can you draw about the author’s attitude and perspective from this passage?
Passage 3:
"Although Holder sympathizes with elephants, he still lauds the technology that will displace them as an “improvement”: a mark of the “progress of civilization”. The elephant may be the “king of the beasts”, but it can offer no competition to the steam locomotive and other Western technologies."
[Source: This article / "Jumbo’s Ghost: Elephants and Machines in Motion," by Ross Bullen was originally published in The Public Domain Review: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/jumbos-ghost]
How would you identify the tone conveyed in this passage?
What inference can you draw from the attitude or point of view shared by the narrator, character, or author in this passage?
What inference can you draw about the author’s attitude and perspective from this passage?
The Advantages of Regular Reading
Writers don't always tell readers precisely what they mean, so they can allow readers to conclude and discover at least some other meaning on their own. This is a great way to provide a reader with educational freedom when reading literary texts. Therefore, you are encouraged to create a nonfiction and fiction-based reading plan to ensure you are regularly familiar with significant written texts.
Therefore, reading fiction and nonfiction works regularly makes you more comfortable noticing an author's tone, mood, descriptions, attitude, and perspectives. Additionally, through regular reading, you will soon recognize your steady progression toward becoming more familiar with figurative language and the differing authors' use of literary devices.
Conclusion
As a student, you must aid your advancement in reading, interpreting, and analyzing to formulate your ideas into written representations of your thinking processes. Reading, thinking, and writing skills will be critical for becoming an advanced reader, highly skilled thinker, and eloquent writer throughout your educational, academic, and professional journey.
Progression is essential, so regular reading and writing alongside your educational journey are critical to maintaining congruence throughout your educational process. If you enjoy reading, never stop; if you haven't been reading much, read what you want or spark your interest, then keep reading. Most importantly, never stop learning, progressing, and obtaining your academic goals on your educational journey.
There are opportunities available for students to develop their reading comprehension and essay writing skills for literature through online tutoring experiences, online education communities, or related critical thinking courses available online.
Next Steps:
Begin by selecting a short passage from a literary work with a distinct tone and mood.
Read the passage aloud with your child or student, emphasizing the author's choice of words, imagery, and descriptive language to convey emotion.
Discuss how the tone and mood of the passage influence the reader's perception and interpretation of the text.
Encourage your child or student to identify specific words or phrases that contribute to the tone and mood and to consider how these elements reflect the author's point of view.
Then, prompt them to make inferences about the characters, setting, and plot based on the tone and mood established in the passage.
Practice this exercise with various texts to strengthen their ability to analyze tone and mood and draw informed conclusions during reading comprehension.
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