For example, if the events that took place in The Things They Carried were described in a diary, we could understand what happened, who died and which was statistically important, but we wouldn't tell them why certain things happened, how people felt about those things, and what emotional toll the soldiers endured. In this particular story, tone acts as a spotlight that illuminates the informational aspects of the literature. In other words, because of the casual and personal tone of this particular story, certain things need to be said; we, the reader, must be aware of certain thoughts and feelings of the characters in the story; this information is neither granted nor expected of us when we pick up a newspaper and read about the war. The tone of the lines "...at that time, Ted Lavender was shot in the head as he was coming back from urinating" (612) and "The guy is dead," he kept repeating, "which seemed deep – the guy is dead. I mean, really” (612) gives the reader the opportunity to consider the death of Ted Lavender as one of his platoon members. We feel in some way what it must have been like to stand there with these men and watch a friend die before our eyes, but we also learn that while some of the men were waiting for Lavender's body to be taken away, they sat there “…smoking the dead man’s dope” (615). This sense of callousness, or perhaps further desensitization, is not evident in the simple facts of Lavender's death, but the tone of the story allows us to see things and understand aspects of the characters that would not be possible if basic factual information were available. only source to rely on. Learning that Lavender's comrades took the drug from her body is a surprise to the reader and may go against...... middle of paper ...... wars and deaths of loved ones, or like those of a Greek tragedy, but the author of this poem is so sincerely touched by sorrow and tragedy that they permeate his daily life, to the point that the death of a toad while mowing a lawn is experienced as something moving and serious. While The Death of a Salesman, The Things They Carried, and The Death of a Toad are different in format and style, the use of tone in each achieves the same goal: revealing motivation, emotion and feeling, or in other words, reveal the human side. of literature. These three works have very simple plots, but they nevertheless convey very complex messages about humanity. Regardless of the length or intrigue of a text, tone can be used to color and illuminate words and facts, to make them more than static pieces of text; this can make them dynamic literary works.