Tone and Voice

When reading a novel, or writing about it, it is very important to know the difference between tone and voice. Tone shows the author’s attitude towards the subject, and voice is the writing style of the author or the way their personality is expressed in the writing. In Sleep Donation by Karen Russell, there is a society with a shortage of sleep. In order for some people to get sleep others must donate. Throughout the story there is a baby, called Baby A, who is being harvested for its sleep.

Karen Russell’s tone is quite sympathetic toward the baby and her family. They are all suffering from lack of sleep in order to help others, but the main character also understands why it must be done because her sister died from not sleeping enough. There are many people in the society who are also in that situation. In this society, sleep is a precious thing and is hard to come by. Karen Russell’s tone is sympathetic, as well as understanding.

Even if I didn’t know that the author is a woman, I think I can tell through her voice in the writing of the story. The way she sympathizes for the baby and her parents seems like it is from the perspective of a woman, or even a mother. Even the way she describes the characters and setting, in some cases, sounds like it could be a woman writing it. It is hard to explain why I make that connection, but knowing how my friends and I describe things, and having read many novels written by men, it just seems to have a woman’s voice. Some times when reading a novel it is difficult to tell if the author is a man or woman, but other times, like now, I definitely feel that the voice of the author is quite feminine.