In "A Worn Path" and "Thank You M'am," tone is the attitude implied in the writing toward the subject of a literary work and toward the reader. What...

Tone in a
narrative can be detected through word choice and the depictions andemployed in the narrative as
well as any musicality. In both "" and "Thank You, M'am," there is an
objective tone that is subtlety sympathetic which prevails throughout the two stories. Moreover,
in Hughes's and Welty's stories both, there is the cadence of the blues song, the regular rhythm
of survival. In the Blues, there is a simple, repetitive, poetic-musical structure. This
structure is exemplified in "Thank You, M'am" as the large woman questions the boy who
has attempted to steal her purse:

If I turn you loose,
will you run? asked the woman.

Yesm, said the boy.

Then I wont turn you loose, said the woman. She did not release him.

Im very sorry, lady, Im sorry, whispered the boy.

Um-hum! And
your face is dirty. I got a great mind to wash your face for you. Aint you got nobody home to
tell you to wash your face?

Nom, said the boy.

In "A Worn Path," there is a similar structure with a
drop in pitch:

"Where do you live,
Granny?"

"Away back yonder, sir, behind the ridge."

"On your way home?"

"No sir, I going to
town."

"Why, that's too far...."

"I
bound to go to town, mister," said Phoenix. "The time come around."

Thus, a certain melancholy exists in these stories as the old woman
makes her passage because she feels she must, but holds little hope in her heart; likewise, the
stout woman perceives a rather hopeless situation for the wayward boy. They both do what they
can for the boys because they think, "What else can I do?"  Neither women posses much
in terms of materialism.

Further, the poignancy of the situations in both
stories is conveyed through the use of colloquial voice. At the end of "A Worn Path,"
the old woman declares,

"I going to the store and
buy my child a little windmill they sells, made out of paper. He going to find it hard to
believe there such a thing in the world."

And, in
"Thank You, M'am," before closing the door upon him, Mrs. Luella Jones tells the
boy,

And next time, do not make the mistake of latching
onto my pocketbook nor nobody elsesbecause shoes got by devilish ways will burn your feet. I got
to get my rest now. But I wish you would behave yourself, son, from here on in.