Sometimes, parental advice is easily given and easily accepted. Other times, a parent’s goals and advice for a child can seem confusing and leave a child questioning why they are being called to do that certain task. During the Revolutionary War, the United States sent John Adams to France to get supplies and military support for the revolution. Abigail, according to the letter, insisted that her son, John Quincy Adams, go as well, despite his own uncertainty when he left for France. In her letter to her son, Adams makes use of a simile and multiple allusions to reaffirm to her son that he made the correct decision to accompany his father to France.

In order to show her son the importance of going on trips like the one he is on, Abigail makes …show more content…
John Q. is going to be one of the first citizens coming to adulthood in the new United States, and based on the status of his family, he will need to be prepared to play a role in the development of the United States. To show John Q. that traveling will help prepare him, she alludes to the great Roman orator, Cicero, asking, “would Cicero have shone so distinguished an orator, if he had not been roused, kindled and enflamed by the tyranny of Catiline, Millo, Verres and Mark Anthony?” Here, Abigail uses a rhetorical question is showing to John Q. that the worldly experience that he will gather will help prepare and mold him for the rest of his life. Just as Cicero was able to become the orator and critic he was due to his firsthand view of injustice, so to can John Q. make himself great by going out and seeking new experiences, and exposing himself to situations like Cicero’s. Furthermore, the wording of the question helps suggest that Cicero was able to become great due to his experience, and if John Q. does not get experience, like his visit to France, there is a possibility that there is some height or level he will be unable to