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Strategies Of Persuading A Son By John Adams

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Persuading a Son

Authors use many rhetorical strategies to convince their audiences of their point. Just after the end of the revolutionary war, Abigail Adams wrote her son, who was at the time reluctantly joining his father abroad, a letter encouraging him to embrace the challenges he would face and become the best person he can be. Abigail Adams uses many argumentation strategies to convince her son that he should use his journey and his abilities to become a future statesman for the newly created United States. She uses strategies like guilt, positively encouragement, metaphor and diction to convince John Adams to become a great statesman like his father. First, his mother uses the fact that Adams has a good education to explain to him why he should do well in life. She reminds him that his “...knowledge of the language must give [him] greater advantages”. His mom uses a strategy in her argument of intelligence of persuading John Adams. By reminding him of the education he has, she implies that he can use that advantage to make connections in France and abroad, connections that will help in in the future. Adams also mentions that she believes he destined for greatness because he is “...favored with superior advantages under the instructive eye of a tender parent.” Adam's reminds her son of all that she and his dad have invested in him to create a sense of guilt over John to live up to the expectations that they have set for him. He cannot fail in her
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