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Rewrite of Rhetorical analysis

(AA)

John Zhang

Department of English Bakersfield Christian High School

11AP: Junior language and composition

Mrs.Breanna Dalomba

2023.12.10
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As the wife of the future president of the United States and the diplomat of the United

States, with the ignorance of his son becoming the future president, Abigail Adams set high

expectations for her son John Quincy Adams. While he is on the way to France, his mom

employs allusion and appeal of etho in the letter to advise her son the necessity of experiencing

adversities on the voyage to France.

Adam began with emotional allusion to clarify the importance of facing and experiencing

difficulties. For instance, Adam used the example of how the historic character Cicero became a

powerful orator. He was "roused, kindled, and inflamed by the tyranny(4)" and eventually

transformed into a "great character (4)". The three consecutive verbs in the allusion form the

paralleling structure, building up the emotive and vivid tone. “Roused”,the choice of this word

suggests that adversity has the ability to awaken dormant qualities and virtues within an

individual. It implies a call to her son to engage actively with the difficulties he may encounter

during his travels.The term "kindled" carries a strong visual and emotional connotation. In the

context of Cicero, "kindled" implies that the challenges faced by historical figures acted as

catalysts, sparking a fire within them. Adams uses this word to convey that, just as a fire is

kindled, her son's intellectual and moral qualities can be ignited by engaging with the

complexities of life.The word "inflamed" intensifies the emotional impact of the passage even

more. Adams employs this term to convey that the challenges faced by historical figures were

not just sparks but intense catalysts that evoked powerful responses. The choice of "inflamed"

adds more weight to the emotion of the idea that significant virtues and qualities are born out of

the most challenging circumstances. As John read through the letter from his mom, his passion

and confidence dormant in his heart would be awakened. In addition, the allusion emphasizes
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how necessary "contending hardship(4)" is because it brought Cicero a "vigorous mind(4)".

Though the context of traveling to France was tough for John, contending it would advance him

eventually. Those two phrases from paragraph 4 brought a positive mood to the reader by linking

achievement to engaging the struggles. Therefore, the tone and the mood in the allusion would

strongly advise John to confront hardship bravely.

Then, Adam finished with the appeal of ethos chronologically to evoke moral responses.

At first, Adams refers to herself as the "instructive eye of a tender parent(3)" highlighting the

guidance and support provided by John’s parents. The reference suggests that John Quincy had

been under the care of the speaker, creating a tone of safety and ease. “Instructive eye” adds a

layer of guidance and education, contributing to the credibility of “tender parents”. So, this

implies the high expectation that John’s parents set on John and foreshadows the moral

obligation with the appeal of emotion in the following paragraph. “render your parents happy,

particularly your affectionate mother(6)”. “Happy” visualizes an ideally fulfilling and joyful

family life, but it is under the condition of John following his parents.It links John Quincy's

actions to the happiness of his parents. With the high expectation and common happiness of the

family, a moral obligation appeared naturally. If John didn't take the advice in the letter, he

would violate this invisible obligation and even betray the expectation of his parents,making

himself feeling guilty.And he shouldn’t do that. Therefore, all of this would force John Quincy to

be compliant with his mom Abigail to experience the dilemma on the trip because of the strong

moral appeal to him.

Adam had high expectations, passion, and love for her son's growth. She showed great

care and advised him, helping his way of advancement. She is a model of mothers, who show
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very detailed care to their children and hope they could be predominant in the future by

experiencing hardship when they are young, instead of in the time when they grew up.
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