Tone

The Reasoning behind the Tone:

Imagine a scene taking place right in front of your eyes. In 1957, you are in Little Rock, Arkansas and the segregation of the public school system has just ended. There is a black girl in front of you and today is her first day at a school that was once an all-white high school. She is walking with integrity, carrying a book in her left arm. She has a serene look about her. She is wearing a sleeveless dress: it has small buttons on the front that leads up to a collar. The top portion of her dress is solid white and it leads to a plaid design on the bottom of the dress. She is well dressed for a day of school. Now behind her stand 3 girls. They are not as calm as she is. In fact, they are the complete opposite. The girl closes to you is grinning at her, while the other two, one at the right side of the girl and the other directly behind, are making rude remarks towards her. Her way of dealing with her dilemma is not showing her resentful feelings toward the girl, but showing calm feelings instead. What would happen if we were to replace the black girl with a slave? Let’s say this slave is not pleased with his current state of being a slave. He has sneak to learn how to read and write because in his time a slave is not allowed to be literate. This makes him angry and wants to show everyone how he feels. As a result of the switch, the reader would expect the outcome of each circumstance to change. If the girl has a calm attitude while trying to learn how to read and write, I would not believe she has what it takes to achieve this goal. On the other hand, if the slave is seen showing his anger towards the girls, it would drive me to conclude that integration of public schools was a bad idea. By replacing the black girl’s surrounding and the slave’s surroundings, or dilemmas, with one another and making sure their attitude stayed the same, I would assume their attitudes will make our understanding of this scene dramatically change....