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Rhetorical Analysis Of Abigail Adams Letter To Her Son

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In a letter written by Abigail Adams to her son John Quincy Adams who is travelling abroad with his father John Adams , a former United States diplomat, advises her son to take advantage of the opportunity by using his own knowledge and skills to gain wisdom and experience growth in developing his character, persuading him to take his first steps to becoming a leader. There are many rhetorical strategies used by Mrs. Adams to persuade her son, among them are metaphor and affectionate tone, rhetorical question and long and involved sentences , and organizes the essay by using argument. Throughout the letter Abigail Adams uses an affectionate tone to advise her son to make his country and family proud. Mrs. Adams uses words such as “ your ever affectionate mother” (62-63) and “My dear son” throughout the letter. By doing so she is coming across as an affectionate and understanding parent, who wants their child to recognize their full potential. In another example she states, “It will be expected of you my son, that, as you are favored with superior advantages under the instructive eye of a tender parent, you improvement should bear some proportion to your advantages” (21-24). She is reminding …show more content…

Her letter to John Quincy Adams, her son shows the affection she has for her son. She writes formally and personally to get her point across yet, still making it clear that her son has a support from his loving family to help guide him through any adversities that may be thrown his way. Through her rhetoric Abigail Adams is able to show the perfect balance a mother must have in guiding her son towards the direction best for him, while maintaining logical and emotional

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Adams uses an abundance rhetorical devices in her letter to her son. The strong diction illustrates what challenges must be faced to become a hero. This tells John Quincy Adams that it will not be easy, but it is worth it. The analogies compare a traveler to a river and wisdom (or fruit) to experience and laziness.

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446 Words | 2 Pages

In 1780, eight years before the creation of the Constitution, Abigail Adams writes to her son John Quincy Adams, using many different rhetorical devices to advise him throughout his voyage across seas. As a mother, Adams’s concerns and prospects for the future are expressed to her son, who is growing old enough to begin to apply his own intelligence to the world. Mothers have always shared a similarity that is rooted in their compassion and tendencies to protect their children, and Adams is no different. Adams encourages her son through a series of rhetorical techniques. First, she displays her absolute love for him, using the phrase “my dear son” throughout the letter to continually show him that she is not scolding him; rather, she is trying to exhibit to him how much he means to her.

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812 Words | 4 Pages

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).

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987 Words | 4 Pages

A twelve year old boy a world away from his parents once wrote in a letter to his parents: “And I have nothing to comfort me, nor is there nothing to be gotten here but sickness and death.” This child was Richard Frethorne, and in “Letter to Father and Mother,” he communicates his desperation caused by the new world’s merciless environment to his parents to persuade them to send food and pay off his accumulated debts from the journey. He accomplishes this with deliberate word choice and allusions to the bible to appeal to ethos, pathos, and logos. Frethorne uses diction, imagery, and facts to create a letter to his parents which aims to garner sympathy for his state of life and to persuade them to send food and pay off his debts.

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In this letter, Abigail Adams writes to her son John Quincy Adams who is abroad with his father. Later, John Quincy Adams, will be noted as a United States diplomat and president. In this letter, Abigail Adams addresses her son, offering him advice for the future. She asserts the pride she has in her son and all that he has accomplished. She encourages him to grow and expand his horizons of knowledge.

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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.

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Abigail Adams is writing a letter to her son, John Quincy Adams. In this letter Adams is informing her son that he should use his wisdom and knowledge to help him throughout his trip abroad he is taking with his father, John Adams. Also known as the second president of the United States. Adams uses comparisons and pathos to encourage and advise her son while he is traveling abroad with his father. Adams establishes authority by using pathos throughout her letter.

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She asks her son rhetorically if Cicero would have been such a great leader had he not been "roused, kindled and inflamed. " Here, Adams is explaining that to become a great leader, one must go through great trials. Also, Adams compares her son to

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Abigail Adams, the mother of John Quincy Adams, is entering a new chapter in her life in which her youngest son is becoming a man. John, his elder brother, and his father are traveling on a long, treacherous voyage to France. Abigail Adams writes John an encouraging letter that will help display her feelings towards him as a mother. Adams uses a number of different rhetorical devices such as a myriad of different historical and metaphorical examples, as well as a motherly diction in order to leave a desired confidence in her son.

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664 Words | 3 Pages

Abigail Adams in the letter to her son, John Quincy Adams, suggests that he be brave and a great man. Adams supports her suggestion to John by explaining what he should do and that he should be strong, mentally, on the trip. The authors purpose is to encourage the son to be a strong man in order to last on the trip, do honor to their country, and become a great man in the future. The author writes in an inspirational tone for her son John Quincy Adams. She incorporates many different literary techniques in order to get the mood and tone across to her son.

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570 Words | 3 Pages

By saying this, Eleanor presents the rhetorical device pathos, because she uses inspirational words to grab attention and connect with the listeners in a way that relates to them. She also uses vivid language to truly intrigue the audience to compromise and work together to provide peace for the country. Eleanor uses a strong form of ethos in the quote from paragraph 10 , “ This declaration is based upon the spiritual fact

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678 Words | 3 Pages

Abigail employs strategies of emotionally charged words and phrases that only a mother can say to her son. In her letter she opens the letter with the phrase, “MY DEAR SON”. This phrase is notable because of the effects that it is intended to give to the audience, her son John Quincy Adams, she is setting a mood and tone of a loving and compassionate mother. She is using the position of her authority as his mother to push him her love for him is why she knows this trip is great thing for him.

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452 Words | 2 Pages

Abagail Adams wrote a letter to her son, John Adams, who is traveling abroad with his father. Abigail Adams, who was a women back then during the Revolutionary War, didn’t have much political rights. Adams was huge in politics and so was her son, second president of the United States. Adam's uses rhetorical devices to advice her son that he is the only person that can control his future and he must know how to pull through difficulty when it's being tested. To advice her son about this, she uses many rhetorical strategies.

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