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activity Analyzing Tone and Mood
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TRM Suggested Responses In the following excerpt from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the
Suggested responses to the activity on main character Janie is preparing to attend her husband’s funeral. What are the tone
this page can be found in the Teacher’s and mood of the passage? Consider how literary elements of diction, including
Resource Materials. Analyzing Short Fiction figurative language, and syntax work together to develop the tone. How does that tone
characterize Janie?
TRM Annotation Handout from Their Eyes Were Watching God
A student handout for annotating this text Zora Neale Hurston
can be found in the Teacher’s Resource
Materials. Janie starched and ironed her face and came set people; it was important to all the world that she
© Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.
in the funeral behind her veil. It was like a wall of should find them and they find her. But she had
stone and steel. . . . All things concerning death been whipped like a cur dog. . . . [Her
and burial were said and done. Finish. End. grandmother] had taken the biggest thing God
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING Never-more. Darkness. Deep hole. Dissolution. ever made, the horizon — for no matter how far
You may wish to ask students to clarify the Eternity. Weeping and wailing outside. Inside a person can go the horizon is still way beyond
difference between tone and mood. Since the expensive black folds were resurrection and you — and pinched it in to such a little bit of a
the activity asks students to analyze how life. She did not reach outside for anything, nor thing that she could tie it about her
tone characterizes Janie, you may wish to did the things of death reach inside to disturb granddaughter’s neck tight enough to choke
separate the tasks. her calm. She sent her face to Joe’s funeral, and her. She hated the old woman who had twisted
herself went rollicking with the springtime her so in the name of love. Most humans didn’t
across the world. . . . love one another nohow, and this mislove was
Most of the day she was at the store, but at so strong that even common blood couldn’t
DIFFERENTIATION night she was there in the big house and overcome it all the time. She had found a jewel
Collaborative Learning sometimes it creaked and cried all night under down inside herself and she had wanted to walk
the weight of lonesomeness. Then she’d lie where people could see her and gleam it
Divide the class into three groups and awake in bed asking lonesomeness some around. But she had been set in the
assign each a different task from the questions. . . . She had been getting ready for market-place to sell.
prompt. her great journey to the horizons in search of 1937
Group 1: As you read, write down your
observations about Hurston’s use of dic-
tion. What characterizes it? Is it formal or
informal? Does it have positive or negative
connotations? Which word choices could From Reading to Writing:
extend from literal to figurative meaning?
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Group 2: What characterizes the setting Crafting an AP Prose Fiction Analysis Essay
in this passage? Do any religious images
emerge? Most of the time you will analyze literature in response to an assignment that provides
Group 3: How does the syntactical struc- both a fiction passage and a prompt for writing about it. Frequently, you will be asked to
tur e contribute to Janie’ s emotional attitude analyze how a writer uses literary elements and techniques to reveal some element or
ture contribute to Janie’s emotional attitude
toward her situation? elements of complexity about a central character’s identity or relationship with another
character. Other writing prompts might ask you to focus on the effect of a setting (like
the landscape or the cultural environment) or how a specific plot event (such as another
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DIFFERENTIATION
Scaffolding
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AP Classroom. Multiple-choice question
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sets on AP English Literature exams follow
the shifts or chunks of the passages, and
many tone questions can be found toward
the end of these sets. This specific passage
was included on the 1987 released exam,
and questions 13 and 14 deal specifically
with tone. The set can easily be found in
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AP Classroom by searching for “Janie” or
the full exam can be found quickly through
a web search. You may wish to ask students
to take the question set, and then discuss
how the preceding questions create a line of
reasoning that leads to articulation of tone in
question 13. Note: The questions will not be
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in order on AP Classroom.

36 chapter 1 / Analyzing Short Fiction

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