Abigail Adams' Pathos in Letter to Her Son

Abagail Adams inscribed a letter to her son during the American Revolution. She wrote to him while he was travelling overseas with his father. Adams demonstrates “Pathos” and “Making Connections” repeatedly throughout her letter to convince her son that traveling with his father is the best entity for him.
First, Adams illustrates pathos by constantly telling her son she wants the best for him, so that he will give the voyage a valiant effort. Adams tried to convince her son that she only wants the best for him. In her letter, Adams declares, “If I had thought your reluctance arose from proper deliberation, or that you were capable of judging what was mostly for your own benefit, I should not have urged you to accompany your father and brother

when you appeared so averse to the voyage” (Adams). She articulates this in her letter in order to tell him that she recognizes what is best for him, and that the voyage will be most beneficial for him. Then, she tells her son that she is content that he agreed to go along in the first place. Adams also says, “you, however, readily submitted to my advice, and, I hope, will never occasion yourself, nor give me reason, to lament it” (Adams). This statement suggests that she is expecting the journey will go well, and that she won’t regret telling him to do it. Using pathos, Adams tries to convince her son to give the expedition all he has got so he can benefit from it later in life.
Second, Adams compared her son to Catiling, Verres, Cicero, and Mark Antony by making connections between them, in order to persuade her son to overcome difficult obstacles in his life.

Adams expresses to her son that he is going to face challenges in his life, and that he needs to be ready to surpass them. Adams pronounces, “Would Cicero have shone so distinguished an orator if he had not been roused, kindled, and inflamed by the tyranny of Catiling, Verres, and Mark Antony” (Adams). Her sentence proposes that in order to be prosperous, you have to overwhelm trials that you face, no matter how difficult. Furthermore, Adams communicates to her son that he will eventually face hardships, and that in order to be successful, he would have to overcome them. Adams says, “The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. All history will convince you of this” (Adams). This evidence indicates that she is informing him that any memorable name in history has faced difficulties, and persevered, just as he should. Comparing her son to well-known individuals, Adams connects her son to them by telling him he would have to face difficult tests in life, as they did.
Adams utilizes “Pathos” and “Making Connections” inside of her letter to her son. She organizes this to influence him to take what he can from the excursion with his father. As readers, we can take what she says, and take the most out of the journeys we will have in

life.