My father drank. He drank as a gut-punched boxer gasps for breath, as a starving dog
gobbles food-compulsively, secretly, in pain, and trembling. I use the past tense not
because he ever quit drinking but because he quit living. That is how the story ends
for my father, age sixty-four, heart bursting, body cooling and forsaken on the
linoleum floor of my brother's trailer.
Which of the following best describes the tone of the passage?
O Sentimental
O Candid
O Sarcastic
O Enraged