Rhetorical Analysis Of Abigail Adams Letter To My Mother

If you ask someone who their biggest supporter is, they usually answer with “my mother.” Regularly, mothers tend to promote a critical but sincere and encouraging persona when it comes to their child by giving them the support and advice they need to grow as an individual. Similarly, in a letter to her son, Abigail Adams advises him to use his opportunities to his advantage to face his “difficulties” and “calamities” with strength and “great virtues” so that he may “bring honor to his country” and “add justice, fortitude, and every manly virtue” to his character to form one similar to “[a] hero’s and the statesman.” By employing pathos, historical allusions and a sincere tone, Adams reveals her purpose is to convince her son that difficulties in life are meant to be embraced in order to establish a strong and tested foundation of will along with adding to his character. She claims that in doing so, one will receive “wisdom and penetration[,] the fruit of [these] experience[s].”

She states, “Some author, that I have met with, compares a judicious traveller to a river, that increases its stream the further it flows from its source; or to certain springs, which, running through rich veins of minerals, improve their qualities as they pass along.” By recalling this anecdote, Adams metaphorically convinces her son that as he sails away from home, he will “improve [his] qualities” and enrich his character like a river as it increases it’s stream. In addition, the presence of his father will present a nurturing and “instructive eye” to assist in the process of his growth as well as providing an ethical appeal. This shows that Adams believes that this venture will result in the betterment of her son’s character and that she will expect nothing less as he is “favored with superior