Mothers have pushed their children to achieve greatness since the beginning of time. Such an example can be seen in a mother’s request to Samuel Johnson for an archbishop’s patronage for her son and the response of Samuel Johnson. In this letter, Samuel Johnson uses various rhetorical strategies to explain and justify to the mother that there is no reason for him to endorse her son and talk to the archbishop about patronage. In the beginning, Johnson explains the mistake that the mother made. He describes expectation that is “dictated not by reason, but by desire” is “dangerous to indulge.” She expected Johnson to comply and that her son would receive patronage. That expectation, Johnson implies and later explains, had no logical reasoning. …show more content…
At the beginning, he implicitly puts her request down. Near the end, however, he blames the helplessness created by the request as the reason for the denial. He first tells her that she does not fully comprehend the impact of her request. She “should have considered what she was asking.” By doing this, he establishes his position clearly, one that meant her son would not get patronage because of the impossibility of the task. To explain this further, he walks her through what the request would have resulted in. The situation, in his eyes, is that he was asked to “solicit a great man, to whom [he] never spoke, for a young person whom [he] had never seen, upon a supposition which [he] had no means of knowing true.” He does this to show that he is willing to share his perspective and that he respects her enough to walk her through it, instead of blatantly saying no without any reason. The mother’s request is logically reasoned inductively to be irrational, leaving him no possible reason or possible procedure to accomplish the task at hand. While it may not have been this extreme, Johnson effectively and logically convinces the mother that she made a mistake in drafting such a letter. On top of this, the response’s wording makes Johnson seem generous but helpless. While he does want to help, he cannot due to the
He begins the article stating that his mother ‘is not surprised that her children are well-off.” This may possibly be hinting at the fact that he and his siblings are doing well prosperity-wise likely due to hard work. He immediately sets the tone for the passage with this statement that draws back to the passage’s theme of the American dream of material success. He then describes an experience in which his mother “stands waving toward no one in particular.” It can be inferred that the particular event being described is the departure of his siblings - possibly back to work.
The autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written in 1845 in Massachusetts, narrates the evils of slavery through the point of view of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass is a slave who focuses his attention into escaping the horrors of slavery. He articulates his mournful story to anyone and everyone, in hopes of disclosing the crimes that come with slavery. In doing so, Douglass uses many rhetorical strategies to make effective arguments against slavery. Frederick Douglass makes a point to demonstrate the deterioration slavery yields from moral, benevolent people into ruthless, cold-hearted people.
Although, when Ms. Hancock dies, she breaks free of the hold of her mother and is “born” a new person. In the end, Charlotte realizes that adults can not see the beauty in people like Ms.Hancock, yet children can. Through juxtaposition, symbolism, and irony, Wilson describes Charlotte’s self-realization of life. Charlotte’s mother’s and Ms.Hancock’s descriptions are a juxtaposition in order to convey her true feelings of her mother and Ms. Hancock.
Every mother wants what the best for her child, even if that child may not believe so. In her letter to her son, John Quincy Adams, Abigail Adams addresses him during his travels in France and defends the rationale of her previous advice while providing her new advice, and partly demands, on the subjects of honor and duty. Abigail Adams uses emotional appeals in the form of personal repetition, flattering metaphors, and prideful personification in order to advise and persuade her son in his personal growth and appeal to his personal qualities, such as pride of honesty and knowledge, to spur his ambitions and actions. To start off the letter, after greeting him and explaining the occasion of her writing, Abigail uses personal repetition with the word “your,” before qualities and events with a positive connotation to appeal to John’s pride and leave him open to listen to more of her her advice, as she already successfully advised him in his trip to France. In only the second sentence of the letter, Abigail already throws in that her advice is, to John, “for your own benefit,” (5) later she speaks of, once again to John, “your knowledge,” (11) and finally, “your understanding,” (14).
Throughout the letter Adams uses phrases like “my son” or “the son of your father.” Her purpose through this is to display to her son that he has nothing but support from both of his parents as he grows into the man he chooses to be. She explains that he is very fortunate to have “superior advantages,” meaning the wealth of their family, yet he should never stray from the morals that were taught to him from “a tender parent.” Adams concludes her letter with “…do honor to your country, and render your parents supremely happy, particularly your ever affectionate mother, A.A.” In this final sentence she includes everything that she expects from her son as he travels, learns, and becomes a
Abigail Adams appeals to her son's emotions to build his confidence and makes connections between him and great men to express the value of experience and challenges. Abigail Adams emphasizes how much faith she has in her son by appealing to his emotions as he undergoes different challenges. Throughout this letter we repeatedly here her reference "my son" . In this phrase, she takes ownership of her son and sets a maternal tone for the letter.
Taylor Scuorzo d Rhetorical Analysis 3/20/23 Rhetorical Analysis Doing benevolent and selfless things for others can occasionally lead to adverse results. In his enlightening and illuminating commencement address given at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 19, 2018, Jason Reynolds emotionally persuades and informs the graduates at the college through the use of anecdotes and metaphors to show that ignoring the significant problems of the world will not help us fix them. To strengthen his speech, Reynolds uses past personal experiences and the comparison of objects to others to help prove the theme portrayed throughout the speech.
Building a new country takes bravery and courage. In this time period (when the U.S. was very trying to stand on its own) many famous political figures helped organize and support our country. One man was John Quincy Adams and he was going to be the president. He did not always possess the strength needed to keep our country going, but some great advice from his mom, Abigail Adams, helped. Adams used many rhetorical devices in her letter to her son to explain how trials and struggles can mold a man into a hero.
Slavery is equally a mental and a physical prison. Frederick Douglass realized this follow-ing his time as both a slave and a fugitive slave. Douglass was born into slavery because of his mother’s status as a slave. He had little to go off regarding his age and lineage. In the excerpt of the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Audience as an Influencer When writing any type of composition, is the author consciously aware of who their audience will be? Benjamin Franklin started writing an autobiography of his life when he was about sixty-five years old. This self-narrative was written about Franklin’s life goals and accomplishments. The subject of who Franklin’s intended audience comes into question throughout the self-narrative.
“What I did not know was that my father would wheedle and and plead his way past them…”. This quote shows the respect the son is gaining for his father and his ability to get him back home earlier than predicted. The mother is
As a president of America, the credibility of Lyndon Baines Johnson is well-established. He did not have to establish his credibility as everyone already knows it and he is a trustworthy source. But, as his audiences are young adults, so he still try to boost his credibility at the beginning of the speech with the joke about coeducation college student partying to let the students know he has been there too. 2.3.2 Pathos This speech can be said as an emotional roller coaster as the emotional elements have its ups and downs.
Between the first and second paragraph, a tonal shift occurs leaving behind the soft-handed tactic of definition and entering the harsh and somewhat accusatory use of rationale. This shift in tone serves two purposes. At first, it prepares the reader for the blame she is to get ("should have considered"). By shifting in tone at this point, Johnson also indicates that beyond preparation for blame, the mother should also leave behind any waiting "hope.
This excerpt from Samuel Johnson’s “Debtors’ Prisons (2)” puts Johnson’s thoughts and ideas on the necessity of jailing those who fail to pay back their debts forth quite plainly. In the second paragraph, Johnson describes a scene to his audience that restates how the general public would typically react to a person being arrested for that very reason. Johnson continues his anecdote with a situation that parallels the goings-on in Britain at that time - the misfortune that is befalling several people unable to pay back their debts.. It is easy to ignore it when it is only one person, but something must be done when it is happening to so many. Johnson uses another anecdote in paragraph 5 that appeals to the emotions of his audience.
Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most influential African-American activists in American History and was a key participant in the Civil Rights movement, the goal of which was to provide full civil rights to all rights in America. MLK has written many, many speeches and letters in favor of the Civil Rights movement in America, the most famous of them being his legendary “I Have a Dream” Speech and the monumental “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. To attempt to gain support for his cause, MLK employs the use of emotional appeals, also known as pathos, and logical appeals, also known as logos, which aid to stir emotion and reasoning in the listener. It is more than obvious that MLK tends to tug at the heartstrings of his listeners with his emotionally charged language essential to his success. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses more powerful and plentiful examples of pathos in his literature, examples of which being his “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, than logos due to the more powerful emotional connection they carry which can convince his listeners to sympathize with his civil rights movement.