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Definition of Tone
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical, and so on. For instance... read full definition
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical... read full definition
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical... read full definition
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis:
The tone of the novel is anxious and intense, but Charlie's seriousness is periodically shot through with youthful hyperbole and silliness. One good example is in Chapter 3, when Ruth makes Charlie dig a hole in the yard as punishment for spending the day at the library without permission:
In a few hours I’ve dug to the depth of my thighs. My burst blister is beyond pain now. This surely can’t go on for much longer. This is like Dickens or something. Surely the Geneva Convention protects me from having to dig anymore.
I keep going.
And I settle back into considering Cooke and his simple, bitter reason. He just wanted to hurt somebody. It sounds so vengeful. But was that really it?
Digging for hours truly is hard work, and Charlie's punishment does seem like a disproportionate response on Ruth's part. It may even skirt the line of abuse. Even so, the idea that Ruth is violating the Geneva Convention is a stretch. The Geneva Convention is an international agreement, negotiated after World War II, about what wartime acts constitute human rights violations. It applies to the actions of governments, not the decisions of individual parents.
By comparing his mistreatment to a war crime (i.e. injustice on a much larger scale), Charlie emphasizes how agonizing the punishment is for him. At the same time, he also demonstrates how young he still is. Laura's death may have forced him to grow up quickly, but he is still a teenager. He is at a developmental stage where he is, appropriately, rather self-centered. Everything he experiences feels like the biggest deal in the world. He also views everything he learns about through the lens of his own life. Because it takes place in Charlie's story, Laura's death thus becomes not only a tragedy in its own right, but also a milestone in Charlie's personal development. Eric Edgar Cooke's atrocities similarly become meaningful in the story as a mirror for Charlie to reflect on his own human behavior and motivation.
It is not that Charlie lacks empathy. On the contrary, he works hard to empathize with others. The moments when his tone becomes a little immature and selfish merely serve as reminders that the seriousness pervading the novel has as much to do with the question of how a teenager can become a good person as it does with the horror surrounding Laura's death. The novel relies on the balance between lighthearted and heavy tones to drive Charlie's character development over the course of the horror plot.
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