In 1780, Abigail Adams wrote to her dear son, John Quincy Adams, regarding the matter of his maturity. Mrs. Adams had previously goaded her son into traveling abroad to France amidst the Revolutionary War with his diplomat father, John Adams, and his brother. John was only thirteen years old at the time. His mother saw him as a young, immature, whimsical boy unable to make wise decisions for himself. Thus, Mrs. Adams believed it would be smart to send him on this trip; she had high hopes of maturing his closed mind and heart while under the guidance of his father. In order for him to make the most of the trip, Mrs. Adams wrote to him including lots of advice. The rhetorical devices employed in Abigail’s letter were metaphors, comparison, and allusion – all of which helped drive her message about maturing into a young adult. The primary device used by Mrs. Adams in her letter is a metaphorical reference. She mentions an author that she had met with and how this author referred to a traveler as “a …show more content…
Adams is comparable to the character from “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Atticus Finch. They seem as though they were cut from the same cloth. They are comparable in terms of wanting to send their children out into the world using the tools that they have been given. Mrs. Adams and Mr. Finch had the mindset that they should give their children the tools they need and send them out on their own to use those tools. They both wanted their children to go out on their own. They both wanted their children to put their shoes in the shoes of others; Mr. Finch wanted his children to put themselves in the shoes of those less fortunate and those who were seen as “outsiders.” Mrs. Adams wanted her son to put himself in the shoes of his father. Although they had different intentions, they both had good ones. Mr. Finch wanted his children to learn life lessons while Mrs. Adams envisioned her son becoming a smart, hardworking, successful diplomat like her husband, John