During the American Revolution, John Quincy Adams, son of American president, John Adams, travels overseas with his father. Abigail Adams employs a maternal tone while writing to her son to challenge his knowledge of the world and present to him his natural born advantage, so that he can model and establish authority through applying himself. Adams writes to John to advise him while overseas with his father. Adams appeals to her son’s emotions by amplifying her motherly affections and modeling pathos to challenge his loyalty to her. She often repeats “my son,” in this passage. She reassures him and reminds him that she is his mother and is trying to do what’s best for him. Adams writes, “when a mind is raised by scenes that engage the heart, then those …show more content…
She writes to her son, John, “your knowledge of language must give you greater advantages now than you could possibly have reaped whilst ignorant of it.” Abigail explains how, now that John knows more about people and how political aspects work, he has an advantage being the son of a president. Adams also reminds her son that he is “favored with superior advantages” under the eye of a “tender parent.” She justifies how he has an advantage, and how he should take the steps to learn from his father, since he has the upper hand over most others. Abigail Adams, the first lady of the United States of America, writes a letter to her son, John Q. Adams, while he is traveling overseas with his father, the president. In this letter, Adams uses many rhetorical strategies to appeal to her son’s feelings towards his father. She uses strategies such as pathos to amplify her motherly feelings towards him and appeal to his emotions towards his father. She also emphasizes his born advantage of having an extremely well rounded father, to teach him about life and how his world