<p>The big doors of the hotel are padlocked. So far nobody has smashed their glass panels. Nobody could stand to do it because the panels mirror your own face as well as the Lineview behind your back: acres of chive grass edging the 5sparkly beach, a movie-screen sky, and an ocean that wants you more than anything. No matter the outside loneliness, if you look inside, the hotel seems to promise you ecstasy and the company of all your best friends. And music. The shift of a shutter hinge sounds like the cough of a trumpet; 10piano keys waver a quarter note above the wind so you might miss the hurt jamming those halls and closed-up rooms.</p>
<p>Q. Lines piano keys . . . rooms convey a feeling of </p>
<p>I think I might have interpreted the sentence wrong... Can you please explain this sentence "piano keys waver a quarter note above the wind so you might miss the hurt jamming those halls and closed-up rooms"?</p>
<p>Well to be honest, I'm having a hard time understanding the literal meaning of the sentence. I just know that as Handyandy said, the diction choices in the sentence do convey a sense of melancholy, and I don't think that a tone can be "reversed" just because it says you "miss the hurt", I could be wrong though.</p>
<p>BTW, did you get this from a Collegeboard book?</p>
<p>I got what you're saying, but try reading this paragraph:</p>
<p>"The marine laid huddled up in his foxhole, the sound of machine gun fire and mortar shells whizzing over his head. One of the enemy soldiers lobbed a grenade just yards away from him. The mere seconds it took to detonate felt like days to the terrified marine, frozen in place and almost certain of his death. A loud bang rang out through the clearing and after the dust had settled, he examined himself and found only a minor shrapnel wound. Later that night, he dug himself in once again, relieved to be alive for one more day."</p>
<p>Would you say the overall tone of this paragraph would be lightheartedness, or even hopeful because the soldier managed to survive?</p>
<p>Oh, i see why you chose hopeful. But, as I was reading the passage, the first answer that came to my mind is something along the lines of serious, austere, which is opposite of lightheartedness, since it's writing conveys a sense of danger and seriousness. How do you know what/which the question is referring to?</p>
<p>It was a rhetorical question, I don't think the tone should be hopeful. The point I was trying to make was that it wouldn't be hopeful, cause the overall tone is one of danger or seriousness. </p>
<p>The paragraph is similar to your original sentence because the overall tone is sad, but there is one minor event that is slightly positive. However, the overall tone is still sad.</p>
<p>“jamming those halls and closed-up rooms” suggests that hotels are places that just seem very pleasant but in reality, are very secluded and un-“ecstatic”. </p>
<p>The closed up rooms imply that people in hotels shut themselves off from others in their hotel rooms. so the jamming doors vividly portray how hotels actually don’t “promise you exstasy and the company of all your best friends” but just further isolate themselves.</p>
<p>So the author is trying to present this pitiful reality that no one realizes. He describes hotels as “deceitful” and just “seemingly” pleasant, and shows how horrible hotels are. Thus conveying a feeling of “melancholy”</p>