In the beginning of the year 1780, Abigail Adams writes to her son, John Quincy Adams who was traveling along with his diplomatic father John Adams, in order to advise him about his travels. As she does this, she implements rhetorical strategies such as metaphors, personification, deductive reasoning, and persuasive appeals to strengthen the advice she is giving to her son. In the duration of the letter, she enforces the concept of growth through discovery to John Quincy as she persuades him to follow her maternal instincts to achieve success. Within the first couple of sentences, Abigail Adams uses the emotional appeal, “My Dear Son,” as a method to soften the way in which John Quincy will receive the advice enclosed in the letter. Coming from his mother, this pathological appeal shapes the maternal advice that she is giving to him. In this case, by doing this, John Quincy is able to sense her compassionate tone and is more open to listen to her. In the same paragraph she uses ethos as a way to give credit to her advice. She says that she “should not have urged [him]... when [he] appeared so averse to the voyage.” From this it is …show more content…
She asks “Would Cicero have shone so distinguished… if he had not been roused… by the tyranny of Catiline, Verres, and Mark Anthony?,” and by asking this question she allows John Quincy to think about the challenges that Cicero faced to become as great as he was, and implies that he can still reach his full potential even if he runs into obstacles along the way. Adams apprises that “it to be one of your incitements towards exerting power and faculty of your mind that you have a parent who has taken so large and active...to be honored,” which shows him that he should be honored to have someone as qualified as his dad to teach him and inspire him and that he should take advantage of the
She relays to Quincy Adams that his fortune of being born into a privileged family gives him advantages that makes him all the more capable to “do honor to [his] country, and render [his] parents supremely happy” (lines 61-62). She reminds him of who he is, the son of John Adams, who unknowingly to them will become the president of the United States, and the son of a tender and attentive mother concerned of his well-being and future. The quote describes her expectations of her son, hoping that he will take her teaching and words of motivation and let them guide him through his future actions. She alludes to Cicero, how he is known as this outstanding figure because he had been “roused, kindled, and inflamed” by corrupt leaders like Verres, Catiline, and Mark Anthony. Abigail Adams tells her son that he must become a “Cicero”, that in times of need, of great disaster, his courage and other virtues will awaken. As a citizen of the United States, he carries the responsibility of protecting the nation which his ancestors have worked hard to establish, and indeed he did honor to his country and protected it just as his mother protected him in his youth. He became a great figure in history like Cicero; he became the president, a strong political leader just like his father, and played a major role in establishing good foreign
about her son’s well-being, and seems to feel guilty that she urged him to make the trip,
Abigail Adams was a woman of high character and a loving soul. She was selfless in her thinking and remarkable in the way she handled people. Her management skills were above average for the normal female in the 1700s. She held many worldly interests that tied her to the political fashion of society. She was well cultured and was able to apply this to her role of a politician’s wife with great attributes towards society. She became the “buffer” with regard to her husband's temper and lack of diplomacy. She participated in many political activities. Her independent thinking, character, faithfulness, and hard work gave her the ability to succeed in society in the 17th century. Even though Abigail Adams was not formerly
Adams establishes her credibility by not only being John Quincy Adams mother, but by also being the wife of the soon-to-be President of the United States. Her ethos helps reassure John that he is following the right path because he is following his mother’s advice. With her ethos, she clearly expresses how important his travels are, but she won’t have to worry about him not listening or not following her advice. She is able to put in the allusion to the past without it sounding like a lecture. She uses her pathos to encourage her son, knowing that the respect at the end of his travels would be worth the
In a letter to her son, Abigail Adams describes the importance of her son's advantages and of using them properly. The passage motivates her son to take advantage of what he's been given to succeed, as evidenced by her descriptions of his advantages, her explanations of her pride in him, and the comparisons she makes to heroes throughout the ages.
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
Letter to John Adams from Abigail Adams and Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams
In 1870, Abigail Adams writes to her son John Quincy Adams, the future president of the United States, in an attempt to convince him of travel and diligence. In her letter Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, Abigail Adams uses a series of rhetorical devices and a strong parental tone to goad her son to take advantage of every opportunity that he gets. Adams achieves her purpose by pointing out the logic of her argument, targeting his emotions, and using a maternal tone to elicit the response that she desires. Abigail Adams appeals to logos in pointing out the logic of what she is trying to get her son to do. By having a logical argument, she is bound to convince her audience that what she is saying is the right way to go.
Abigail Adams wrote a letter to her husband John Adams called Remember the Ladies. Abigail is writing this letter during the Revolutionary War. The timing of the letter is significant because the country is at war for freedom and equality. In her letter Abigail pleas with her husband for women’s equality. Abigail’s purpose for writing to John regarding women’s equality is so that he will think of women as they adopt new laws. Throughout the letter Abigail uses different points of view, word choice, and varying tones to persuade her husband to see the need for laws that are considerate of women.
This letter is filled with logos, ethos, and pathos that Abigail Adams uses. Abigail Adams explains to John Adams that as his mother, she knows what is best for him. Here she uses ethos to show John Quincy Adams that by listening to her, he is getting the right advice. He can benefit from seeing the world at a young age instead of waiting until he was older. Growing up he would realize this. By explaining all of the knowledge and experience that he would gain, Abigail Adams is trying to persuade John Quincy Adams to go traveling with his father. That by leaving with his father, being under the watch of a superior, he can improve his young mind. “It will be expected of you, my son, that, as you are favored with superior
In the letter to her son, John Quincey Adams (future president of the United States), Abigail Adams implies what she expects of her son to demonstrate the significance of his journey. Her choice of words provides to him the knowledge that he can only become a respectable force. Accordingly, Adams writes “…must give you greater advantages now than you could possibly have reaped whilst ignorant of it” argues that he is now more than he once was and introduces the purpose of her letter. The metaphor
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,
Mrs. Abigail Adams incorporates pathos, logos and allusion in advising her son about his trip to France. While the revolutionary war is coming to a close in 1780, young John Adams accompanies his father and brother in his “second voyage to France.” John Quincy Adams, future president of the United States, doesn’t realize the importance of this voyage and observing his father being a diplomat in France. This is why Mrs. Adams finds the importance of writing a letter to give counsel to her son and his future. Emotion, the center point that drives Mrs. Adams’ focus in this letter.
In order for him to understand John Adams and his wife Abigail’s lives, he chose to read what they read. He is obviously well read for he states that once again he read “the essays of Samuel Johnson and works of Pope, Swift, and Laurence Sterne” (p.3). He states, “We’re all what we read to a very considerable degree” (p.3). In this way, he is better able to delve into the minds of those he writes about and thus understand them better.
Inspiring her son with pathos, Adams calls upon him to accomplish as much as possible in his life. While she gives her son reasons to act, Adams describes how “The strict and inviolable regard [he has] ever paid to truth, gives me pleasing hopes that [he] will not swerve from her dictates, but add justice, fortitude, and every manly virtue which can adorn a good citizen, do honor [his] country” (Adams 57-61). Adams tells her son that in order to satisfy the demands of “truth,” he must “add justice, fortitude, and every manly virtue” as he honors his country. All of these “virtues” add to Adams’ appeal to