What Is The Importance Of Abigail Adams Letter To Her Son

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The bond between a mother and her son is something that can never be broken. Mothers have a special influence on their children in order to get them to listen. Abigail Adams influenced her son, John Quincy Adams, into going on a trip to France with his father and brother. She wrote a letter to him after he left in order to apologize and explain her actions. In Abigail Adams’ letter to her son, she uses many different examples to advise him on what he must do to bring honor to his country. As John Quincy Adams is on this journey to France, his mother does not waste a second to remind him why it was a good thing for him to go on this trip. She explains that his “knowledge of the language must give you greater advantages now than you could possibly have reaped whilst ignorant of it…” It is his duty to grow in knowledge and understanding of the world around him. She tells him in very balanced sentences that he must use his own knowledge to make his decisions. She wants her son to take …show more content…

She tells him to live for god and to be aided by this “generous and powerful ally.” She uses numerous appositive phrases in this paragraph in order to get her whole thought in. For example, when she says, “You, however, readily submitted to my advice, and, I hope, will never have occasion yourself, nor give me reason, to lament it.” Her overall approach to advise her son in very weak and slightly repetitive. She continues to tell him about all of the things he will need to do in order to honor his country, instead of letting him figure it out on his own. When she says, “As you increase in years, you will find your understanding opening and daily improving”, she is explaining the process of becoming an adult and identifying his own