Abigail Adams Letter Rhetorical Analysis

Abigail Adams, in this letter to her son, uses a loving and motherly tone to appeal to him.

She also uses ethos in an attempt to convince her son that he should get the most out of

his experience going to France. The two rhetorical devices that Abigail Adams uses makes for a

well-written letter. The tone used in this letter is very loving and motherly. For example, Abigail uses the

phrase "my son" many times in this letter. This is effectively pointing out that Abigail genuinely

cares about her son and is extremely loving towards him. Additionally at the very end of the

letter she says "...your ever affectionate mother," this again reiterates the loving tone that is

present throughout this letter. Motherly is also how I would
Overall, these two predominant tones create a strong relationship between mother and

son and makes way for a certain emotional punch that is prominent throughout the letter. This emotion that is made possible by the tone is expressed through ethos. A strong

example of this is when Abigail states "...do honor to your country, and render your parents

supremely happy, particularly your ever affectionate mother." This sentence has a couple

emotional motivations for John Quincy Adams, for one it brings loyalty to your country into the

picture which brings a slew of emotional feelings, John Quincy Adams cannot dishonor his

country. The other thing that appeals to ethos is making his parents happy, he wants to make

his parents proud as they are the most important people in his life. This overarching appeal to

the ethos gives emotional reason as to why John Quincy Adams should listen to his mother and

make the most out of his trip.

In conclusion, the various rhetorical strategies that Abigail Adams used made this a very

well-written letter. Her use of a loving, and motherly tone added a strong relationship between

mother and son. Additionally, she was able to effectively appeal to ethos to get her point