So Matter-of-Fact

"I decided to call to him. Miss Baker had mentioned him at dinner, and that would do for an introduction." pg. 25. Since Nick is the narrator of the novel, the readers are at his disposal. He is the one who portrays all of the information and events that are happening in the story. Nick has such a matter-of-fact tone that it seems like he is just stating information and illustrating his experiences. His tone puts a casual atmosphere to the novel like the readers are right there along with Nick as he is experiencing the novel's events. Since the story is mostly about Gatsby and not Nick's life, he is explaining the events of Gatsby's life that he is seeing. He doesn't know what Gatsby is thinking or feeling; he only has what Gatsby looks like or how he's acting. Therefore, the matter-of-fact tone is appropriate for this novel because its not about Nick's life. He really is just stating facts.

Tone

Although the tone is a major part of every story, I want to focus specifically on the tone of the chapter titled Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. While reading this chapter, I was intriguing and very interested. I found the transformation of Mary Anne from a girl right out of high school to a woman of the forest fascinating. She was defiantly a dynamic character because when she first arrived at the base, she was a girl of innocence and sweet; but after a few weeks at the camp, she started to change dramatically. Mary Anne had almost no fear of anything. She wanted to learn about the war and how to survive in Vietnam. She learned to load, shoot, and clean a gun and was almost like one of the army guys. Mary Anne was not an innocent school girl anymore.

To portray this transformation, the tone of the chapter had to be happy and bubbly (like her personality pg 91) at the beginning when Mary Anne first arrived but with a slight dark feeling, a feeling like something is going to go wrong. Towards the middle, the tone shifts to one that signals independence and change. Mary Anne was becoming more self-reliant and less like the girl who first arrived at the base. Then finally, the tone shifts again to something more ominous and dark. Mary Anne leaves for a long time with the Greenies, and when she comes back, she is a completely different person. She became one with the land and the jungle. Her feelings changed from love of Fossie to love of the environment. I think I can say that Mary Anne went wild.