Tone of Beyond Pastel
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The tone of the poem “Beyond Pastel” is frustration and is developed by using literal techniques like first person point of view, imagery and symbolism. The poem is about a teenage girl named Katherine Lawrence who is having a difficult time coping with the divorce of her parents. Her parents are acting like theres nothing for her to adapt too, when really shes still only a teenager and now has to deal with switching houses and shes used too seeing both of her parents in the same home, happy and in love. Its very difficult for her to except. Her frustration is shown in various ways towards her parents.
The use of first person point of view helps to develop the tone of frustration in the poem “Beyond Pastel.” From this, the readers can truly get a sense of of her frustration shes going through from her perspective. The narrators anger is very recognizable when she says “They’re getting divorced but tell us nothing will change though I dont know how moving from a bungalow to a townhouse and seeing dad once a month doesn’t add up to change.” The narrators thoughts indicate how her parents act like theres nothing for her to readjust too when really she now has to deal with the frustration of barely seeing her dad and moving into a home she does not want to live in. What she really wants is a happy family that live together and get along and this very clearly frustrates her. The first person point of view highlights the tone of frustration.
Another technique used by Lawrence to aid in tone development is the use of imagery. The imagery throughout the poem emphasizes the narrators feeling of frustration. Lawrence says “Two single cots on wheels fold up like praying hands he stores in a bedroom closet between our sleepover visits. Nothing matches except by accident.” This demonstrates her frustration because her parents are not together to share a home and she does not want to pick between the two. She indicates that nothing matches and she compares it to her life because she feels as if everything in her life is mismatched. Her father