{"id":806,"date":"2014-07-07T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T12:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.princetontutoring.com\/?p=806"},"modified":"2015-01-13T23:50:31","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T23:50:31","slug":"literary-terms-and-devices-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.princetontutoring.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/literary-terms-and-devices-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Literary Terms and Devices Part II: Approaching Texts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tone\"<\/a>For those of you preparing for AP English Literature exam (May 2015) this summer, read on! For those preparing for essay sections on the ACT or SAT, bookmark this blog post. While we focused on generally foundational literary terms last week (metaphor\/simile, symbol, allusion, hyperbole, and irony), today’s post highlights terms you should definitely stow in your tool bag for those essay portions of college entrance exams. These big guys (diction, syntax, tone, mood, imagery, and denotation\/connotation) are all top contenders for analyzing a literary passage and most importantly, writing about it clearly and effectively.<\/p>\n

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On the AP English Literature exam, you will be asked to simply analyze a specific literary passage (prose, poetry, nonfiction) in terms of its, well, literary characteristics. Here is an example essay topic from the 2010 AP English Literature exam.<\/p>\n

Read carefully the following poem by Marilyn Nelson Waniek. Then write an essay analyzing how Waniek employs literary techniques to develop the complex meanings that the speaker attributes to The Century Quilt. You may wish to consider such elements as structure, imagery, and tone.<\/span><\/div>\n

(Source: www.collegeboard.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Notice the last sentence in this prompt: “you may wish to consider such elements as structure, imagery, and tone.” The AP English Literature exam will almost always incorporate a sentence very much like this, in which the writers of the exam suggest <\/em>literary terms for you to consider within your critical reading of the passage. Big hint: they pick these terms for a reason. Structure, imagery, <\/strong>and tone <\/strong>are three of many devices that are sure to be at work within the sample passage. Correctly identified, these devices will be sure, additionally, to assist your argument. Let’s get a solid grasp on them now.<\/p>\n

Tone<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not to be confused with mood<\/em>, tone is the author’s attitude toward his or her text, readers, and\/or material. Examples of tone <\/em>include the following: caustic, sarcastic, droll, nostalgic, sinister, formal, ironic, and elegiac. Can you identify the tone in this following passage from William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury<\/em>?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the shadow of the sash appeared on the curtains it was between seven and eight o’ clock and then I was in time again, hearing the watch. It was Grandfather’s and when Father gave it to me he said I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire; it’s rather excruciating-ly apt that you will use it to gain the reducto absurdum of all human experience which can fit your individual needs no better than it fitted his or his father’s. I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In this passage, one might say the tone is fatalist, bitter, or caustic; because it departs from the novel’s usual stream-of-consciousness prose, one might even say that the change in diction<\/p>\n

The tone <\/em>of a text is frequently another key to an author’s intent and a text’s purpose. This is why questions about a passage’s “tone” often appear on the AP English exam and the critical reading portions of the ACTs and SATs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Theme
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not to be confused with motif<\/em>, the theme <\/strong>of a work is often called its “common thread” or overarching idea. A text’s “theme” extends throughout the entire text, and is elucidated in a variety of ways, via other literary devices, characters, plot, and individual passages. Themes can be tricky, because they may be easily confused with symbolism. <\/em>Just remember that\u00a0themes <\/strong>are often associated with that question I’ve reminded you to ask yourself in the past: “What’s the point?” Examples of themes are the following:<\/p>\n