In Abraham Lincoln's “Gettysburg Address,” Walt Whitman’s “O captain! My Captain!” and Thucydides “Pericles’ Funeral Oration” grief because of war and hope are important themes found in each disquisition. Despite the difference in each story's setting, the overall similarity in themes of grief, conflict, aspiration and the goals in mind for each article holds significant meaning.
One theme all of these accounts had in common was grief because of wars that were taking place. For example, in the Gettysburg Address written by Abraham Lincoln, who was the President during the American Civil War, he was primarily addressing the soldiers who survived the Gettysburg battle and the families of the soldiers who sadly passed fighting for what they believed
…show more content…
Some of these differences are that all of these events happened on different occasions. To further explain, The Gettysburg Address was an honoring ceremony for the cemetery of soldiers who passed away on a field in Pennsylvania which took place about 5 months into the Civil War. This is extremely important because if the Union lost the war their industrious prosperity would have stopped and slavery would have remained in all the United States for a long time. Lincoln took this time of need to honor the dead and encourage the living to keep going. On the other hand, as the title implies, Pericles’ Funeral Oration is a Funeral Oration that took place about one year into the Polynesian War that happened between Athens and Sparta, two Greek city-states. This is significant because if the Athenians lose the war, they will lose their way of life. Thucydides took this as an opportunity to recruit people to join the battles between the two city states and even encouraged the younger generation to have more children for the battles. Furthermore, Whitman wrote “O Captain! My Captain” to commemorate Abraham Lincoln to the US because Lincoln hardly got to see victory. To further elaborate, the Civil War ended on April 9, 1865 and Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865, meaning Lincoln wasn’t even alive for a week before the assassination. This is essential because unlike the funeral oration and Gettysburg Address, “O Captain! My Captain!” is honoring one person and not soldiers who died fighting in