Model For Reader Response Notebook
Entry # 5
Title: Letter to John Adams
Author: Abigail Adams
Genre: Literary letter
Summary: Abigail Adams writes a letter to her husband, John Adams, who is away from their Massachusetts home attending the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. She opens by acknowledging and accepting her husband’s the duty to serve the country although she finds it difficult to have him away and misses him. She tells him that the people are impatient for action (“on fire”) and urges that the rebel government declare its sovereignty to the world. Finally, she takes issue with the view that men should retain absolute power over their wives, pointing out that it contradicts the rebels’ calls for emancipation. She closes with an emotional statement about her missing him and word of their children’s welfare.
Author's Purpose: To convey news of the situation at home, to show her continued support for his work, and to persuade her husband that women deserve the same protected rights as men.
Intended Audience: Personal letter, her beloved husband is the audience. She intends to influence him so that he, then, will influence others.
Technical and Style Information:
- Adams uses both emotional (pathos) and logical (logos) appeals. She builds up many facts and then asserts her point. She also makes a concession (i.e. he must do his duty), which supports her credibility (ethos).
- Uses allusions and citations from other sources to add weight to her arguments:. Example: "T is a maxim of state, that power and liberty are like heat and moisture. Where they are well mixed, every thing prospers; where they are single, they are destructive." Poetry: “Charm by accepting, by submitting sway/Yet have our humor when we obey”
- Uses a rhetorical question to reinforce her point about how other nations will view them: "Shall we not be despised by foreign powers, for hesitating so long at a word?"
- Diction- very high level and formal. Examples: "ruminating," "lethargy," "precepts," "I cannot say that I think you are very generous to the ladies; for, whilst you are proclaiming peace and good-will to men, emancipating all nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over wives"
- Metaphors & Similes: “Whilst the building is in flames, they tremble at the expense of water to quench it.”
Personal Response & Notes for My Project
- Letter is effective. I liked her use of logic appeal and fact. She ends with emotion (talking about their kids). It's interesting that she disagrees so much with what her husband is doing about women, but she obviously also loves and respects him.
- Emotional or logical?
- Direct quotes increase credibility.
- It's cool to be so formal!