Tone and Style: Notes & 'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place '
5: Tone and Style | Notes
Victorian Novels:
• Commentator (presumably author) interrupts story from time to time to remark upon the action, offering philosophic asides, or explaining the procedures to be followed in telling the story.
• The commentator doesn’t necessary portray the opinions, mood, etc. of the author.
• Commentator is himself a character
Tone:
• Whatever leads us to infer the author’s attitude.
• Author’s choice of details, characters, events and situations, and choice of words lead us to infer his or her attitude.
• Tone may communicate amusement, anger, affection, sorrow, contempt.
• To understand tone is to understand some attitude more fundamental to the story than whatever attitude the characters explicitly declare.
Style:
• One of the clearest indications of the tone of a story is the style in which it is written.
• style refers to the individual traits or characteristics of a piece of writing, a writer’s way of managing words that we come to recognize.
• Style indicates a mode of expression: the language a writer uses.
• Traits of style:
o length and complexity of sentences
o diction: choice of words (abstract , concrete, bookish, close to speech, etc.)
o habitual use of imagery, patterns of sound, figures of speech, other devices.
Minimalists:
• written with flat, laid-back, unemotional tone, in a bare, unadorned style.
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place | Hemingway
158 In the day time the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference. Here Hemingway uses longer sentences to create the setting and mood of the story. This contrasts the terse dialogue between the waiters later.
-
The “dusty” and wet street creates a atmosphere both dim and peaceful.
Hemingway also characterizes one of the central characters of the short story: the old man. Hemingway describes the old man as liking to sit late in the cafes and watch the “quiet” and feel the “difference.” The old man is also “deaf,” and from How to Read Literature Like a Professor we know that blindness (deafness also?) is not just blindness. The man is deaf and cannot hear the criticism of the waiter; essentially he is immune to the harshness and coldness of the young waiter. Deafness, possibly a symptom of age, protects the old man from the young waiter’s hostility.
-
Also, the old man “[feels] the difference” from the dry and dusty day air and the dark and moist night air. Though the man is deaf and cannot hear the difference of night and day he can feel it. However, does “difference” here refer to the difference between night and day or some other difference that the man must frequent cafes late at night to experience?
160 “He hung himself with a rope.”
“Who cut him down?”
“His niece.”
“Why did they do it?”
“Fear for his soul.”
The writing here (and throughout the dialog of the two waiters) shows the shallowness of the younger waiter. The younger waiter continuously answers all of the older one’s questions using short and terse diction. This is, as previously described, Hemingway’s style (to have dialogues be straight forward and terse in nature). The fact that the older waiter is curious however depicts him as more intellectual and inquisitive.
160 “I wish he would go home. I never get to bed before three o’clock…”
“He stays up because he likes it.”
“He’s lonely. I’m not lonely. I have a wife waiting in bed for me.”
“He had a wife once too.”
“A wife would be no good to him now.”
“You can’t tell. He might be better with a wife.”
“His niece looks after him.”
“I know. You said she cut him down.”
“I wouldn’t want to be that old. An old man is a nasty thing.”
“Not always. This man is clean. He drinks without spilling. Even now, drunk. Look at him.”
“I don’t want to look at him. I wish he would go home. He has no regard for those who must work.”
Again, the dialog portrays the shallow nature of the first waiter in comparison to the old man and the second waiter. The fact that the young waiter cannot see beyond himself shows the limitation of his years. Here Hemingway implies that experience and insight often comes with age (such as the deaf old man who cannot hear anything but knows much).
-
The older waiter seems to admire and sympathize with the old man, regardless of his making the two waiters stay at work longer. Hemmingway depicts the younger waiter as naïve, stubborn and close minded by only having him respond shallowly and almost childly to his older companion. In fact, the younger waiter refuses to even look at the old man, showing that he would not even give consideration to changing his mind. The younger waiter works at the café only for the fact that it is “work” while the second one works there for the people that he helps by being open, like the old man.
160 “Finished,” he said, speaking with that omission of syntax stupid people employ when talking to drunken people or foreigners. “No more tonight. Close now.” Hemmingway adds his own little insight here. By essentially describing the younger waiter as “stupid” he shows a more Victorian style of writing. Also, by associating the young waiter with “stupid,” by contrast Hemmingway associates the opposite of stupid (wise, intelligent, etc.) with the old man.
Victorian Novels:
• Commentator (presumably author) interrupts story from time to time to remark upon the action, offering philosophic asides, or explaining the procedures to be followed in telling the story.
• The commentator doesn’t necessary portray the opinions, mood, etc. of the author.
• Commentator is himself a character
Tone:
• Whatever leads us to infer the author’s attitude.
• Author’s choice of details, characters, events and situations, and choice of words lead us to infer his or her attitude.
• Tone may communicate amusement, anger, affection, sorrow, contempt.
• To understand tone is to understand some attitude more fundamental to the story than whatever attitude the characters explicitly declare.
Style:
• One of the clearest indications of the tone of a story is the style in which it is written.
• style refers to the individual traits or characteristics of a piece of writing, a writer’s way of managing words that we come to recognize.
• Style indicates a mode of expression: the language a writer uses.
• Traits of style:
o length and complexity of sentences
o diction: choice of words (abstract , concrete, bookish, close to speech, etc.)
o habitual use of imagery, patterns of sound, figures of speech, other devices.
Minimalists:
• written with flat, laid-back, unemotional tone, in a bare, unadorned style.
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place | Hemingway
158 In the day time the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference. Here Hemingway uses longer sentences to create the setting and mood of the story. This contrasts the terse dialogue between the waiters later.
-
The “dusty” and wet street creates a atmosphere both dim and peaceful.
Hemingway also characterizes one of the central characters of the short story: the old man. Hemingway describes the old man as liking to sit late in the cafes and watch the “quiet” and feel the “difference.” The old man is also “deaf,” and from How to Read Literature Like a Professor we know that blindness (deafness also?) is not just blindness. The man is deaf and cannot hear the criticism of the waiter; essentially he is immune to the harshness and coldness of the young waiter. Deafness, possibly a symptom of age, protects the old man from the young waiter’s hostility.
-
Also, the old man “[feels] the difference” from the dry and dusty day air and the dark and moist night air. Though the man is deaf and cannot hear the difference of night and day he can feel it. However, does “difference” here refer to the difference between night and day or some other difference that the man must frequent cafes late at night to experience?
160 “He hung himself with a rope.”
“Who cut him down?”
“His niece.”
“Why did they do it?”
“Fear for his soul.”
The writing here (and throughout the dialog of the two waiters) shows the shallowness of the younger waiter. The younger waiter continuously answers all of the older one’s questions using short and terse diction. This is, as previously described, Hemingway’s style (to have dialogues be straight forward and terse in nature). The fact that the older waiter is curious however depicts him as more intellectual and inquisitive.
160 “I wish he would go home. I never get to bed before three o’clock…”
“He stays up because he likes it.”
“He’s lonely. I’m not lonely. I have a wife waiting in bed for me.”
“He had a wife once too.”
“A wife would be no good to him now.”
“You can’t tell. He might be better with a wife.”
“His niece looks after him.”
“I know. You said she cut him down.”
“I wouldn’t want to be that old. An old man is a nasty thing.”
“Not always. This man is clean. He drinks without spilling. Even now, drunk. Look at him.”
“I don’t want to look at him. I wish he would go home. He has no regard for those who must work.”
Again, the dialog portrays the shallow nature of the first waiter in comparison to the old man and the second waiter. The fact that the young waiter cannot see beyond himself shows the limitation of his years. Here Hemingway implies that experience and insight often comes with age (such as the deaf old man who cannot hear anything but knows much).
-
The older waiter seems to admire and sympathize with the old man, regardless of his making the two waiters stay at work longer. Hemmingway depicts the younger waiter as naïve, stubborn and close minded by only having him respond shallowly and almost childly to his older companion. In fact, the younger waiter refuses to even look at the old man, showing that he would not even give consideration to changing his mind. The younger waiter works at the café only for the fact that it is “work” while the second one works there for the people that he helps by being open, like the old man.
160 “Finished,” he said, speaking with that omission of syntax stupid people employ when talking to drunken people or foreigners. “No more tonight. Close now.” Hemmingway adds his own little insight here. By essentially describing the younger waiter as “stupid” he shows a more Victorian style of writing. Also, by associating the young waiter with “stupid,” by contrast Hemmingway associates the opposite of stupid (wise, intelligent, etc.) with the old man.
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