Adams Letter To Her Son Analysis

This letter is a fine example of Abigail Adams' strong feminist and strong federalist views. These letters represented the turmoil felt by women during the uncertain times facing the colonies. The views of Abigail Adams became the first in a long line of cries out for women's equality.

She asks “[w]ould Cicero have shone so distinguished an orator if he had not been roused, kindled, and inflamed by the tyranny of Catiline, Verres, and Mark Anthony?” (line 30) By giving examples of past events in which great triumph came from some misery and suffering, she shows that significant accomplishments can be made from even the hardest times. She is telling her son that even if he faces difficulties, appreciable things are to come from it. She says this because of America becoming their own nation which causes many problems, much like war. She lets him know that there will be many hardships in the future of the new nation. Adams wants to show her son that through tough times something greater and more pleasing will

In Abigail Adams letter to her son: letter to John Quincy Adams, she uses many rhetorical devices to convey her feeling towards him as he leaves with his dad. She uses pathos as a way to project her feelings as a concerning strict mother toward Quincy telling him to use caution during the trip, hoping great things for him. She uses logos to explain to him that he must be grateful and use this advantage that has been given from his father that others don't get, to learn and grow from. Her tone in this letter to her son is advising and loving mother hoping he'll learn from this great experience and doesn't miss out on this opportunity.

Abigail Adams uses tone as a rhetorical device in her letter. The first being a loving and trusting tone towards her son that appeals to his emotions. Recognizing that her son has “readily submitted to her advice,” Adams praises her son for his consideration of her opinion. When she states that difficult times are times “in which a genius would wish to live,” she illustrates her trust toward her son - she believes that he is a genius and thus should uphold the thinking of a genius. However, Abigail Adams’s methods of persuasion are not entirely congenial. Mothers are aware that sometimes they have to be more austere with their children in order for them to comprehend the importance of their advice. Therefore, the mother utilizes a stern tone in her letter. In the beginning, A. Adams tells her son, John Quincy Adams, that he does not have “proper deliberation” or the right judgement to make the decision on his own. Therefore, she had to step in and urge him to accompany his father and brother on the voyage. Additionally, she tells him that she has voiced her opinion, so she hopes that he will “never have an occasion” to “lament” it. By saying this, she is showing J.Q. Adams that it is in his best interest to follow her advice. As the saying goes, mother knows best. Abigail Adams is very passionate about making this aware to her son; however, sometimes her

Abigail tries to convey the general impact of the Revolution in Boston. She chose the details she did to try show John Adams what has changed in Boston as a result of the Revolution. She shares that the city is in a better condition that what she was expecting

Abigail Adams writes a letter to her son John Quincy Adams, conjugal to John Adams. They are traveling abroad. Adams writes this particular piece because she shows concern for her son, who is far away and composing a letter is the only way to communicate. It is important to Adams that her son has a safe and significant trip because she believes “nothing is wanting with you but attention, diligence, and steady application.” (Adams, 24-26)

Adams uses many appeals in the letter in order to get her son to get her point across. She uses pathos in the introduction by starting the letter with “my dear son…” to show that she is a caring mother towards John. She also established a maternal tone to remind him that she is his mother, so he needs to follow her advice.

Throughout Adams’ letter, she persuades her son by appealing to pathos in order to demonstrate how highly she thinks of her son. Clarifying, “Nothing is wanting with you but attention, diligence, and steady application,” Adams reassures that she is not trying to change her son, or turn him into a hero, but for him to gain experience and become a well-rounded person. Adams also acknowledges her sons disinterest in the voyage, “If I had thought your reluctance arose from proper deliberation or that you were

The main point of this chapter was to showcase the religious, family-oriented background that Abigail was raised in. It explains why she is so focused on her family and John later in her life. It also explains her penname “Diana” and her love for literature and being involved in politics, after being taught to read at a young age.

With the marriage to John Adams, Abigail gained more than just a family and a husband she gained a greater independence for herself and for the women in the colonies. John Adams was a political man and devoted his life to politics. Abigail spent majority of her married years alone and raising a family by herself, with the help of family and servants. It was during these years that Abigail started writing a tremendous amount of letters. She wrote to family and friends but most importantly to her husband John. In the letters to her husband she was able to express her feelings about situations that were happening in the family and colonies. She wrote encouraging words that helped him through troubled times in politics. With the absence of her husband during her second pregnancy,

In 1815, John Adams wrote a letter to James Lloyd, a Senator of Massachusetts. In this letter, he expressed his opinion of the Revolutionary War, stating that one third of the American colonists were “averse to the revolution”; another one third of the colonists “conceived a hatred of the English, and gave themselves up to an enthusiastic gratitude to France” while the remaining one third either taking a neutral stand or being indifferent to both sides. According to this categorization, the Loyalist, who still held loyalty for the English monarch, can be categorized as the first one third of the American colonists, while the Patriots, who devoted themselves to the nation-building project of American Independence, can be said to fill in the

He came from a relatively wealthy and strong family, and went on to become a lawyer (Brookhiser, 2002). Taking what he did very seriously, he often worked on valuable, vital projects that were important to society and that could help his fellow man. He also had a wife whom he deeply adored, and it was clear that the feeling was returned. While this was not shocking and many people loved and cared for their spouses, the willingness Adams had to be open about his feelings for his wife and to express those feelings to her freely was not something that was commonly seen in the time period, when those types of feelings were most expected to be kept to oneself or shared only in very private moments with loved ones (Thompson, 2002). However, John and Abigail Adams expressed deep and significant moments of intimacy in their letters, which was something was not so common with respect to correspondence that would have been, in a way,

Abigail was completely reassuring and assertive of her husband’s abilities. The bond between the two individuals was apparent almost everywhere, for John’s ideas and thoughts were almost always the same as Abigail’s. They

I found the Adams Letters interesting for many reasons. Although they are a "happily married", I questioned Abigail when she stated, "I wish you would ever write me a letter half as long as I write you." I wonder why Abigail would question him but I also ask myself, why isn't John writing as much? Their spelling and capitalization was not very good but I honestly feel the time period effected that in many ways.

In the letter Adams responds to her new surrounding by writing to her daughter about every little detail she can see. This is because her daughter isn't with her so she has to write everything down to send to her in a letter. A question that I had was why wasn't her daughter with her in the first place? Was there a reason the family didn't just come to Washington D.C. all together? Something that was weird for me was Adams tells her daughter that she has to keep everything she was just told a secret from everybody. I thought this was weird because why would Adams not want her daughter telling everyone about the White House and things about it and about Maryland and Virginia? Another thing Adams tells her daughter is she talks about the views