In texts, including literary works the feelings or attitude of the narrator in relation to the events the narrator describes is called the tone. This attitude can be identified through the use of word or expression that reveal the position of the author towards the text. In the case of the passage from "Everyday Use" the narrator who is an African-American mother describes herself, for doing this she uses expressions such as "rough, man-working hands", "I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man" or "One winter I knocked a bull calf straight in the brain" that shows she is proud of herself and her actions and she wants to show she is respectable or dignified. Therefore, the general attitude or tone of the narrator in this passage is dignified.
