What Is The Tone Of Abigail Adams Letter To Her Son

Good parenting is, in part, the combination of giving an instructive, yet friendly treatment. Like a teacher, good parents impart their knowledge onto their children. Like a friend, good parents have good communication with their children. In her letter to her son, Abigail Adams displays the effectiveness of this element of good parenting. Mrs. Adams demonstrates how a pedantic, yet reassuring tone allows parents to succeed in placing responsibilities on their children, and most importantly, in leading their children to deduct that these responsibilities are just and achievable. "It will be expected of you, my son, that, as you are favored with superior advantages under the instructive eye of a tender parent, your improvement should bear

He is led to feeling responsible with his parents and with himself for fulfilling the expectations that his parents have for him. Expectations that are rightly formed because they are based on the education and care that they have given him. With the way Abigail speaks to John about his father, the "tender instructor," John's filial concerns are appealed because John cares for his parents's feelings. He doesn't want his parents's teachings to be in vain. He wants his parents to be proud. John is left with little to none excuses for not meeting up with his parents's expectations since he knows that he has received an education from caring and intelligible parents. Furthermore, having all of these advantages, the just, righteous thing for John to do, would be to be a successful person. Abigail's tone ethically appeals to her son and this is how she can succeed in another of her goals: John can conclude that he can and should comply with his parents's expectations because they are the just and right thing to do. Even more, Abigail's tone allows for John to independently conclude that he is capable of succeeding. As John is reminded of the knowledge, care and position that he has, the feeling of responsibility does blossom, but so does the sense of preparation. Abigail is not putting John in a position where she is telling him who to be, rather, she is reassuring him that he can be someone great in life. That he can use his parents's teachings and his own knowledge to