Analysis Of Founding Brother By Joseph J. Ellis

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Recommended: Alexander Hamilton contribution to America

In the book, Founding Brother by Joseph J. Ellis, many stories from American History are shared. The story that I was most interested in is “The Duel.” This duel was one of the most historic duels because the duel was between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. “The Duel” takes place in Weehawken, New Jersey on July 11, 1804. Aaron Burr was the challenger in this duel, while Alexander Hamilton was the challenged. Burr challenged Hamilton to “The Duel” because Hamilton was libeling Burr throughout his entire life, while Hamilton simply “could not honestly deny Burr’s charges.” Upon the arrival in New Jersey, Burr and Hamilton’s seconds met to discuss the terms of “The Duel” and shortly after this Aaron and Alexander began their ten paces. One… …show more content…

Ellis, were his interesting choice in writing and the usage of quotes. Ellis’ uses, the figurative language, flashbacks all throughout the story. One of my favorite most helpful flashback used was during the explanation of “The Duel.” In order to describe what happened, Ellis needed to explain the end of “The Duel” to allow the readers understand what happened. Ellis writes, “For our story to proceed along the indisputable lines established at the start, we must skip over the most dramatic moment, then return to it later.” Due to Ellis’ style he allowed the readers to understand the story of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Another style used that I loved was how many quotes that Ellis used. I loved reading these quotes to get into the characters minds and seeing how Ellis interpreted Hamilton and Burr, such as, “Burr had nothing to gain and everything to lose.” This phrasing has been used throughout many books and story and is so powerful. Even though Burr thought killing Hamilton would help him replace Hamilton, he didn't. The uses of the authors diction and usage of quotes helped the story move along and increase in …show more content…

This book may be aimed towards the audience of adults, but I hope that soon teenagers will soon become interested in History. I have alway been a huge fan of American History, but I do not like to read. This book though I do want to read, because of the amazing explanations of “The Duel.” Ever since this broadway show Hamilton by Lin Manuel Miranda I have wanted to learn more about the life of Alexander Hamilton,. Whenever I find a book that describes Hamilton’s life I want to read it, and i'm glad I read Founding Brothers. Within this book Ellis uses many quotes from Hamilton and Burr which is personally one of my favorite parts. The quotes of Hamilton is one of my favorite parts of the book because of Hamilton's amazing skills with a paper and pen. Another element of the book I enjoyed is the still problematic conclusion of Hamilton's death. In “The Duel” there were two shots fired, one by Hamilton and one by Burr. There are two hypothesis’ shared in the book on who shot first. This is important to me because the author was not biased and did not only include one option, I feel like in doing this they gave the reader a choice of which conclusion they want. Joseph J. Ellis did not only stay unbiased he also included some fun and interesting little tidbits throughout the story. When I say this I mean when he described the connection between the weapons used in “The Duel.”

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