Tone Techniques: Dances with WolvesIn his novel "Dances with Wolves", Michael Blake uses several techniques throughout the story to enhance the tone displayed in the drive. Blake uses tones that vary from sad (wartime) to joyful (victorious). Tone can be defined as the emotion or feeling felt by a reader during a novel/short story. Most of the time the tone changes. It can go from sad to dramatic, from happy to angry, from angry to calm, or basically anything in between. Tone is important because it defines the main theme or feeling of the story. In “Dances with Wolves,” the tone changes dramatically as the story progresses. At the beginning, Blake presents us with a hostile environment. The setting is that Dunbar, a drunken army officer, is assigned to a remote trading post near a tribe of Sioux Indians, his sworn enemies. Communications between them are limited and the Indian tribe describes the white men as "stupid and useless." The feeling is also mutual. White men then considered the Indians barbaric, uncivilized and useless. These two groups of people have been extremely hostile towards each other. But this will certainly change. Dunbar only goes out because he wants to see the frontier or lands that haven't been settled. It happens to be Indian land. As the story progresses, Dunbar befriends the tribe, turns against their Northern army, and goes to live with the Sioux. The tone here is a more warm and friendly environment, as Dunbar realizes that his new friends are more civil than men of his species. Things really begin to change when Dunbar's troops discover that he has joined the Sioux. They trap him and beat him, then make him serve as a slave. Dunbar never ends up returning to the white man's army. The way Blake presents the overall use of tone in this story only makes it more intriguing and exciting. I think the most prevalent mood in this novel is a mood of courage, manifested primarily by the Indians, but primarily through John Dunbar. Towards the middle of the story we find a romantic tone through John and "Stands With a Fist »..