Tone

Tone

Question one

              Us and Them by David Sedaris is an intriguing story, whereby the author highlights the impact of technology on an individual. The author creates ideas, analyses, and views on the effects of items such as television sets on an individual’s daily life. On the other hand, the purpose of the author in Who is Malala highlights views, ideas, and arguments about the education of girls. Who are Malala acts as a biography story of Malala Yousafzai in her quest for advocating for girl child education in her community?

Question two

The author in Us and Them uses a disapproving tone when addressing Tomkey’s family. The author disapproves of the aspect of Tomkey’s family not possessing a TV set. The author says,” because they had no TV, they were forced to talk during dinner” (Sedaris, 2004). Such words were written by the author in his narration to showcase that the protagonist of the story feels more superior to the Tomkey’s family. In Who is Malala, the author brings an informative and inspirational tone. The author provides information on how she stood her ground with the Taliban and her quest to advocate for girl child education. The mood and tone later become gloomy due to the arrival of the Taliban in Swat Valley.

Question three

Us and Them and Who is Malala are both intriguing stories that are different, yet they possess specific similarities. One of the similarities is that both are informative in their tone. Both stories express common problems that affect today’s society. However, one of the differences is in their mood. For instance, the text Us and Them has a superiority mood while Who is Malala exhibits a mood that is gloomy and egalitarian in nature. This is evident whereby Malala fights for her rights in getting an education even though she is a woman.

Visual Text

The right portrait with a colored shirt and head facing down showcases a man who is unhappy about something or a situation. Despite the image’s gloomy mood, according to its sensory attributes, it depicts a lighter color and is more realistic in its painting. The mood is unpleasant, while the tone of the portrait is lightly colored.     

           The middle portrait showcases a picture of a man with a disfigured face, eyes, and mouth with a protruding tongue. The portrait appears to be abstract and hence done out of an artist’s imagination as opposed to a representation of a personality like in the right portrait. The sensory details are dark in culturewide and the mood of this painting is discomforting, with a blackish tone.

The left portrait showcases a man who is angry but calm. The sensory details are of lighter color with scattered lines in its painting. It appears to be an oil painting with visible brushstrokes. The tone of this painting is lightly colored, and the mood is angry and frustrating.

Week 2-Response-Peer.

Peers Response Post 1.

Unlike the second peer response post, the author adequately and exhaustively provides answers in each question.  In question one, two and three, the author thoroughly highlights the mood, tone and purpose of  Us and them and Who is Malala to readers. Specific answers such as the purpose of Who is Malala is to inform, or the tone used in Us and Them to be judgmental and critical to be accurate answers. The author of the post also addresses the mood and tone of the three portraits, unlike the second peer’s post.

Moreover, the author in the first post gives short and accurate answers in comparing the three portraits. Nevertheless, it is according to my view that the format the author uses is not ideal to exhaustively compare the portraitist author should have compared each painting accordingly to adequately analyse the images. Besides, the author only puts into account the visual features in comparing the portraits and does not highlight the mood and tone in each picture.

Peers Response Post 2.

One of my reactions towards the peer’s second post is that it exhibits specific shortcomings. The author in the post does not exhaustively. Essentially, in the visual text, the author only answers the questions rather than providing sufficient knowledge of the three portraits. For example, the author omits vital information in identifying the mood and tone of the three portraitists. It would be ideal for the author of the post to highlight the mood of the Right, left, and middle portraits to be unpleasant, discomforting, and angry, respectively.

Moreover, it is by my notion that it was not ideal for the author of the post to address all questions as one whole paragraph. This method does not account on the relative importance inadequately addressing each question. Even though the post experiences these limitations, I would recommend it to a student who wants a fast grip on how to analyze and identify moods and tone in written text.

Reference

Sedaris, D. (2004). NPR Choice page: Us and Them. Retrieved 15 March 2020, from https://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2004/jun/sedaris/usandthem.html