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“Yes, but is the Man you? Or are you the Man?”
“Do you mean the Man, or the wo-man!”
“Who is the Man…?”
“But are you the Main, Man…?”
(Sung) “When a maaan loves a wooomannnn!!”
__ The Color of Water (James McBride)
In this excerpt, the playful tone is used to emphasize a ‘goofy’
conversation between the author and his wiser siblings.
You can see how the conversation starts with the wiser siblings commenting
on ‘the man’ in a more philosophical way. Suddenly, the shift to the then young author becomes obvious when he
asks who the man is. Sibling conversations, specially between the older ones and the young ones can be quite comical since
the majority of the time the youngsters don’t know much about the main point of the conversation to begin with. The
last quote finalizes a great example of playful tone usage by actually noting that what started as a philosophical conversation
about ‘the man’ turned into a love song.
Cheerful, comical, flirtatious, funny, good-natured, happy, humorous, joyous,
lighthearted, merry, prankish, and vivacious.
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