ShmoopTube

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Here’s your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Poison.

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Just pray you never find any of these guys sprinkled on top of your pasta.

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The author's tone is BEST characterized as which of the following?

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And here are the potential answers…

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No specific lines mentioned here, so this question wants us to read the passage

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as a whole and come to a decision about the author’s tone.

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Is he crabby and obnoxious?

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Let’s hope not… as that is NOT one of our 5 answer choices…

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Is the author… celebratory and welcoming?

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Uh… welcoming? Welcoming WHO, exactly?

00:48

We don’t see Death being ushered into this guy’s home with open arms.

00:51

Trust us. You never want to leave your armpits exposed and vulnerable.

00:54

Is he melancholy and wistful? Both words have something of a passive connotation…

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if you’re melancholy, you’re sort of quietly depressed, and if you’re wistful, you’re…

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quietly contemplative.

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But our author is anything but quiet. He’s pretty passionate when it comes to… dissing Death.

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What about “fearfully retreating?”

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Again – there’s no “retreat” about this guy. He’s all systems go, full steam ahead…

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Angrily insulting?

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The best choice we’ve seen so far…

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but while he’s certainly insulting, we wouldn’t necessarily call him “angry.”

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There’s more of a self-possessed, even-keel approach that the speaker has when… mocking

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and deriding the messenger to the hereafter. Confident and taunting?

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Here we go. Similar to D, but closer to the mark. We don’t picture the author brandishing

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a pitchfork at Death… more like he just… let’s Death know it’s there…

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So our answer is E.

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Just FYI, we do NOT recommend taunting Death.

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One of these days, he just might snap.

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