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2004 AP English Language And Composition Free-Response Questions

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2004 AP English Language & Composition Free-Response Questions: Question 1 In the 1746 letter to his young son, Lord Chesterfield asserts to his son the importance of taking the full advantage of education in achieving excellence through the usage of various rhetorical features such as understatement, irony, and rhetorical questions. Throughout the first paragraph, Lord Chester repetitively uses understatements to establish a tone of sympathy. By acknowledging that parental advice is often“ascribed to the moroseness, the imperiousness, or the garrulity of old age” in lines 3 to 8, Chesterfield seeks to build an illusion of understanding with his son, setting the scene to present his assertions in disguise of friendly advice. This ironic use of understatements become even more evident in lines 8 to 12. In these lines, he appears to be presenting his faith in his son’s judgement and assuming a humble tone by lowering his advice to a position dependent on his son’s consideration. However, upon closer examination it becomes clear that he is in fact …show more content…

He states that he only wishes to advice his son in the ways of life from the position of a “friend” and “guide” (lines 17 - 21) so that his son would be able to evade the “thorns and briars that scratched and disfigured” him in his own youth. The irony of this statement becomes clear, however, through the series of negations that follows in lines 25 to 30. In these lines Lord Chesterfield discretely warns his son that his merit is the “only measure to my kindness”, and should he fail to pay heed to his father’s advice, he would have not “a shilling in the world”. He reinforces his expectations of his son under the premise of faith in lines 30 to 34 by stating that he is “convinced that you will act right”. This threatening tone directly contradicts with the image of a “friend” that he establishes earlier in the

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