Hardship is not something that happens solely in this day and age. For example, people have had to go through diseases, famines, natural disasters and even wars. During these hard times people need encouragement. In the past, important historical figures have carried this out by giving speeches or writing poems during times of war. In Abraham Lincoln's “Gettysburg Address,” Walt Whitman’s “O captain! My Captain!” and Pericles “Pericles’ Funeral Oration” grief and hope are important topics found in each disquisition. Despite the difference in each story's setting, the overall similarity in subject matter of grief, conflict, and the goals in mind for each article holds significant meaning. One topic all of these accounts had in common was grief …show more content…
To illustrate, in the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln says that there “shall be a new birth of freedom and that the people shall not perish from the earth.” Lincoln tells the audience that if they help and don’t let the soldiers “die in vain” that in the end, they will have freedom and liberty. This speech was given in 1863 and the war did not end until 1865, meaning that the audience needed to hear words that would help them keep fighting. As well as the Gettysburg Address, Pericles’ Funeral Oration also gives its people hope. Pericles starts off by telling the Athenians that Athens is worth fighting for to reach freedom. Then he explains to them that they “are contending for a higher price;” freedom. He encourages people to fight for Athens just like Lincoln encouraged people to fight for the US. Comparably, in “O Captain! My Captain!” Whitman also talks about hope in his poem. The purpose of this poem was to honor Lincoln and he was represented as the captain in this poem. Whitman talked about hope when he said “The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting.” In the poem, the boat was nearly to its destination, which symbolizes hope. For four horrendous years, Americans were fighting each other which led to a horrible bloodshed that killed approximately 600,000 Americans. People nearly lost hope, however, Lincoln is not the only one portrayed in this poem. Although the captain, Lincoln, was lost, the ship who