Choose TWO of the following passages from Chapter 8 and describe the MOOD and TONE in each passage. Also, explain how this MOOD and TONE was created. I.e. Reference any word choice, language techniques used, or sentence structure chosen.

“This place was ageless and lifeless. A mass of snow, and ice, and rock slowly moving upwards; freezing, thawing, cracking asunder, always chasing with the passing of centuries. What a silly thing to pit oneself against!” Page 121

The Mood (atmosphere) of this passage is shown as slow and calm. Words like ” ageless” “slowly” “lifeless” all represent the idea of the atmosphere to be calm and slightly peaceful. The passage is describing a setting, and the mood is set as this to help the reader really grasp a good understanding and image of what the atmosphere is like in that moment of time. The tone (attitude of writer) is presented as heavy with slightly clouded thoughts. Too me, this passage indicates Simon is trying to draw his attention to the setting around him, instead of thinking about Joe, and what had happend. This passage describes Simons view on whats around him, but the tone seems heavy, like he’s trying to assure himself everything is ok, and redirect his thoughts to other subjects. 

 

“I stared at the mountain rising over me. Empty. It was a pointless thing to have done – climb up it, across it, and down it. Stupid! It looked perfect; so clean and untouched, and we had changed nothing, It was beautiful, immaculate, but it left me empty. I had been on it too long, and it had taken everything.

The mood in this passage is described with the words ” Empty” “stupid” ” nothing”.  These choice of words set the mood as tough and draining. It is obvious that the narrator (Simon) is feeling a sense of deflation. Theres nothing left for him to be excited about, nothing for him to feel a sense of achievement over. The tone in this passage is set through words like ” pointless” “taken everything” ” empty”, these words help the reader understand the attitude of the narrator. Simons attitude towards this experience is negative. It is like he has given up. At the start of the book he appreciated the mountain and applauded his successes. Now he looks at the mountain with no expression or emotion, and doesn’t have the same respect for it as he did before. I think the reason for this is because this mountain had taken his best friend, it had drained every ounce of energy left in Simon, every drop of positivity was gone. The tone suggest that Simon has something against this mountain now, like a grudge or a grimes feeling, one that has got him regretting the decision to climb it in the first place. 

Join the conversation! 1 Comment

  1. Good initial answers, Meg. Possibly clarify your points in the first response: “help the reader really grasp a good understanding and image of what the atmosphere is like in that moment of time.” Could you specifically state what the atmosphere is and why, here?

    Great answer for tone in the second passage – you have clarified your ideas about Simon’s attitude effectively. (Only area to strengthen is possibly add evidence from the beginning of the text to show the dramatic contrast in Simon’s attitude from the beginning of the journey to now).

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Mrs Waide Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Posts By meg breen

Category

Writing