Abigail Adams Figurative Language Analysis

While her son, John Quincy Adams, was on a trip with his father and brother, Abigail Adams wrote him a letter, telling him she approves his ideas and wants him to find success. Abigail Adams uses figurative language, historical appeals, and religious appeals to tell her traveling son that she thinks his travels will help him become a well-rounded person with a wider view of the world.

Abigail Adams uses figurative language to show her son that his experiences will help him have a wider world view. In the third paragraph, she compares a traveler to a river, writing, “that increase its stream the further it flows from the source...improve their qualities as the pass along.” She uses this metaphor to tell her son, which is represented by the stream, that as he travels, or “flows from the source,” he will have a wider view on the world, because his travels

In the fourth paragraph, she writes, “It is not in the still calm of life... that great characters are formed.” It is Abigail Adams’s job as his mother to encourage him to be the best that he can be, so she includes this historical allusion to convince him that he can become a “great character,” even if he isn’t facing “the still calm of life,” as many great leaders have done in the past. Later in the fourth paragraph, she talks about Cicero and Mark Anthony, and writes, “The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties.” During the times of Cicero and Mark Anthony, life was difficult, but those who endured became the leaders. Abigail Adams includes this to show that even if her son is “contending with difficulties,” he needs to endure in order to have a “vigorous mind,” just as the people did during the times of Mark Anthony and Cicero. Abigail Adams includes historical references to convince John Quincy Adams that he needs to gain experience and be faced with challenges to become a