What is the author's tone in In the Garden of the North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff?

"In the Garden of the North American Martyrs" contains some significant tone variations that help contribute to the meaning of the story and parallel the shifts in point of view. Tone is the dominant attitude that the reader hears in the story. It can be ironic, genial, or objective, for example. The beginning of the story is characterized by the neutral and objective tone of the narrator, but by the end the tone is prophetic, resembling the language of the Old Testament. The success of the story hinges on this dramatic shift in tone, so that Mary's voice shatters the aura of smug and false objectivity that dominates both the auditorium and the story. Wolff describes Mary's speech in the interview with Jay Woodruff as language that "bursts the bounds of traditional realistic fiction."