Letter To Father And Mother Rhetorical Analysis

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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. Frethorne begins his letter by demonstrating how he has matured through experiencing the hardships of life in the new world. Because of the context of the letter, Frethorne is also attempting to ingratiate his parents to aid him in his plight. Frethorne writes: “Loving and kind father and mother: My most humble duty remembered to you, hoping in God of your good health, as I myself am at the making hereof” (par. 1). Frethorne’s use of diction in the words “Loving,” “kind,” and “humble” reminds his father and mother of their role as caretakers and paints himself in the light of a son thinking of his parents to strengthen his case for assistance later in the letter. To accompany this, Frethorne uses the imagery of his diet to appeal to his parents’ compassion. Frethorne stresses his meals of “peas, and loblollie… A mouthful of bread for a penny loaf must serve for …show more content…

In an effort to make his argument as persuasive as possible, Frethorne uses intentful word choice and allusions which his Protestant parents are able to recognize to persuade them to send him provisions and pay off his