To Da-duh in Memoriam

by Paule Marshall

Start Free Trial

Student Question

What is the mood of To Da-Duh in Memoriam?

Quick answer:

The mood of To Da-duh in Memoriam is characterized by youthful excitement, stubborn arrogance, and competitiveness. This mood shifts to include regret and guilt after the rivalry is won, and ultimately, loss after Da-duh's death. The narratorial tone also evolves from personal and somewhat distant to less personal and more factual, with a final tone of regret and guilt reflecting emotional ties to past events.

Expert Answers

An illustration of the letter 'A' in a speech bubbles

The mood, also called atmosphere, has a focus that is within the setting and is constructed from the literary devices (elements and techniques) of setting, objects, descriptive details, images, diction. The mood of To Da-duh in Memoriam is youthful excitement mixed with a good deal of stubborn arrogance and brash competitiveness. After the rivalry in the story is won, the mood changes to include regret and guilt. After Da-duh's death, loss intrudes the mood.

When the nine-year-old narrator goes to Barbados to meet her grandmother, the mood responds to their sense of similarity that is rapidly sprinkled with a good deal of stubborn rivalry. On Da-duh's part, the rivalry is accompanied with a pride in her surroundings and comfortable safety that reflects in the mood, while the narrator's young arrogance adds brashness to the mood. The brashness all leaves once she wins the rivalry by humiliating her grandmother into submitting to the superiority of the urban world, which submission, incidentally, touches the story with one of its threads of irony: If the urban world wins by humiliating good women, then can it be so superior after all?

Approved by eNotes Editorial
An illustration of the letter 'A' in a speech bubbles

What is the tone in "To Da-duh in Memoriam"?

The narratorial tone in "Da-duh in Memoriam" is personal and somewhat distant at the beginning of the story but changes to less personal, more factual and is at a greater distance at the end of the story. The narrator's voice is that of a nine-year old girl going to Barbados to meet her grandmother and see a sugar plantation for the first time. The narrator is actually an adult at the time of the telling but she is speaking from her long distant nine-year-old self as she recollects the events in the story. She is personally involved but her emotions are distanced and she sees emotional events as through the eyes of an outsider to the island of Barbados.

At the end of the story, the narratorial tone switches as the narrator and her family leave Barbados for America. The narrator tells the events surrounding the emigration from Barbados through the voice of her adult self and steps back even further from emotional involvement while providing more factual information. In the last paragraph, a new tone of regret and guilt enters the narrative along with a lessening of the distance as she reveals her emotional ties to past events.

Get Ahead with eNotes

Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.

Get 48 Hours Free Access
Approved by eNotes Editorial