Authors use many literary elements of tone to demonstrate the overall tone they want to be shown to the reader. The story, “The Contents of a Dead Man’s Pockets”, is filled with these elements. Through the use of this, the author exposes the tone and their other goals in the story. The story uses diction, imagery, and details most frequently and are the key elements to understanding the tone of the story. Diction is an element of tone which describes the author’s words and their feelings towards something. The author, Ray Bradbury, uses diction throughout the story, and helps to understand the tone. An example of this is, “ Then he shrugged. Even though his plan were adopted, he told himself, it wouldn't bring him a raise in pay--not immediately, anyway, or as a direct result. It won't bring me a promotion either, he argued--not of itself.” As we can see, the author is using very descriptive and writes in a certain manner that makes the tone seem very serious and urgent. Through the use of the element, diction, the author exposes the tone as very dangerous and thrilling. …show more content…
The main use of imagery is to appeal to the reader’s senses to give a full picture and description of what is happening at a certain point in a text. In “The Contents of a Dead Man’s pockets, an example of this is, “ Without pause he continued--right foot, left foot, right foot, left--his shoe soles shuffling and scraping along the rough stone, never lifting from it, fingers sliding along the exposed edging of brick.” This piece of the texts paints a clear picture in the mind of the reader and shows a very suspenseful tone. Imagery plays a big role in the story’s tone, and we can see it as very exciting and