Tone Shifts

In The Sportswriter, Richard Ford uses a variety of different tones to create a unique style and entertain the reader. These tone shifts are sudden, yet very powerful because they evoke a sense of excitement from the reader and encourage him or her to keep reading.

Some of the most prominent tone shifts occur in the beginning of the novel. He starts his novel with, "My name is Frank Bascombe. I am a sportswriter. For the past fourteen years I have lived her at 19 Hoving Road, Haddam, New Jersey" (Ford 1). This a very tranquil tone that doesn't have a lot of meaning to it.

Shortly after this introduction, Ford shifts to a rather blissful tone. "I lived in a large Tudor house bought when a book of short stories I wrote sold to a movie producer for a lot of money, and seemed to set my wife and me and our three children-two of whom were not even born yet-up for a good life. Just exactly what the good life was" (Ford 1). It is evident that Ford incorporates many different positive adjectives and verbs.

Suddenly, the tone shifts from blissful to dark and gloomy. Ford says," I am no longer married to [my wife], for instance. The child we had when everything was starting has died" (Ford 1). These horrible experiences in the narrator's life are brought up shortly after telling about the happiest times of his life. The author does this to contrast the differences between glory and gloom. Using this juxtapostion of happiness and sadness, Ford is able to evoke sympathy from the reader and possibly connect with the reader as well.