Review Mood


Can you think of a film you have seen where you walked away feeling elated, or depressed, or even terrified? What caused you to feel that way? Most likely, it was many components working together: setting, music, sound effects, lighting, and so forth. Can you think of a piece of literature that left you feeling similar emotions? It may take longer to come up with a specific text as we don't often think that the things we read affect us emotionally.

Take another look at the film trailers for Disney's Mary Poppins. This time, focus on the emotions you are having. What elements listed above are creating this mood in you?

Just as films can evoke rage or joy, literature can also make readers walk away feeling many emotions. While it often rides the coat tails of tone, mood represents the emotion created in the reader, through the use of literary elements, such as tone, setting, and so forth.

What mood is created in the following passage? Which words contribute to the mood?

The girls were playing in the pond, splashing each other and trying to catch fish with their hands. They were having fun, but kept looking over their shoulders at the looming forest. The long grass of the field kept moving and they sort of felt like they were being watched.... About a half hour passed and still the girls kept checking the field for movements. It seemed like a pair of dark eyes was on them. They even considered going back inside, but that would mean homework time. So they continued splashing, but with caution now. Their eyes hardly left the field.

In the passage, the ominous or foreboding tone creates a mood of nervousness, or even fear, in the reader, as does the "looming forest" and the "moving grass."