The best way to remember an event is to write it down. By having a physical paper of your experiences and thoughts, it is effortless to be brought back to that event by reading your own personal writings. Nathaniel Hawthorne took his time to write about the time he met President Abraham Lincoln in 1862. The Civil War broke out a year previous to when Hawthorne met President Lincoln. The country was divided, either in support of President Lincoln and the Union or the Confederacy. Hawthorne's position portrayed toward the President is positive and in support of. He is able to put those who have read his personal thoughts directly into his shoes, nearly a century ago, by the use of rhetorical devices. Hawthorne portrays an attitude of awe by …show more content…
using hyperbole, to exaggerate the accomplishments of the President, imagery, to detail every second he was around the president, and repetition, to make an idea the main focus. Hypothetically, overeagerness can be interpreted as a form of dedication and flattery.
The moment Hawthorne saw Lincoln, he says “It is the strangest yet fittest thing in the jumple of human vicissitudes, that he, out of so many millions...should have found the way open to fling his lank personality over the chair of state” (Hawthorne). Hawthorne expresses his respect to Lincoln by listing his accomplishment of being chosen as President of the United States. He uses exaggeration as a form of flattery, by implying the President was chosen out of millions and millions, yet the competition was much lower than that. The use of the rhetorical device hyperbole, in this case, creates the tone that Hawthorne is bragging and proud of who Abraham Lincoln has become. The attitude of awe can be seen when Hawthorne goes out of his way to over eagerly speak of Lincoln’s …show more content…
accomplishments. Similarly, describing a person with highly specific details can also translate as a form of flattery. One does not remember every specific detail, unless that person or event had an impact on their life. Hawthorne describes the way Lincoln walks, the thickness of his browns, and exactly what he was wearing, the day he met him. For example, he says “He had shabby slippers on his feet, his hair was black, still unmixed with gray, stiff, somewhat bushy, and had apparently been acquainted with neither bush nor comb that morning.” (Hawthorne). He also mentions how “dark and swallow” his complexion was. Hawthorne clearly was taking in every detail he could about the president and describing him honestly. It was important for Hawthorne to use the rhetorical device, imagery, as a way to convey the tone awe. In doing so, the reader will take notice in how dedicated and engaged Hawthorne was in order to describe the president in such complexity. The tone of awe is interpreted when Hawthorne spends that much attentiveness for one person. Continually, Hawthorne also uses repetition to convey his attitude.
He mentions “based upon his geniune qualities, unknown to those who chose him, and unsuspected of what endowments may adapt him for his tremendous responsibility should have found the way open for him to fling his lank personality into the chair of state” The repetition of “him” and “his” puts emphasis on strictly Lincoln. The main point Hawthorne wants the reader to focus on is what Lincoln overcame and conquered on his presidential journey. By taking the time to draw as much attention to this main point, Hawthorne is almost guaranteeing the reader takes note of his suddle fervency for the President’s accomplishments. The tone of awe is created when Hawthorne portrays this
emphasis. Despite the polar views of President Abraham Lincoln during his time, Nathaniel Hawthorne was clearly a supporter. He defines his attitude towards the president by not clearly stating it, but using the rhetorical strategies hyperbole, imagery and repetition. Each strategy puts emphasis on only positive attributes of the President. The tone awe is created when Hawthorne goes out of his way to brag about the President’s accomplishments by using hyperbole, take in every detail and feature of the President to later portray imagery, and almost guarantee every reader understands the significance of his accomplishments, by the use of repetition.
In The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne efficiently conveys his purpose to the audience through the use of numerous rhetorical devices in his novel. Two such rhetorical strategies Hawthorne establishes to convey his purpose of informing the audience of valuable life lessons in The Scarlet Letter are characterization and the theme of duality.
give the reader insight about anything relating to President Abraham Lincoln in his final days as
Williams has also expounded upon the role of Lincoln as a placicator, its with the emergence of Grant, that some of the other Generals start feeling unattended to (336). Lincoln becomes understanding and does his job of keeping the big picture of the war in mind by soothing the bruised ego. Williams has done wonders, showing Lincoln as one devoid of any ego. This is one of the subtle tones of the passages, but it always makes the reader draw this inference. I found this subtle reiteration very well timed and placed.
In the article, "Chiefly about War Matters," Hawthorne utilizes conspicuous imagery as well as an awe-struck tone to accentuate the fact that while Abraham Lincoln may have been physically unattractive, his strength of character made up for all of his superficial shortcomings due to the fact that he was intelligent and exceptionally insightful. Through his usage of illustrative imagery and a mystified tone, Hawthorne is able to emphasize the fact that Lincoln, re...
In Richard Hofstadter’s book “American Political Tradition” he describes twelve biographical portraits of American statesmen, breaking them from longstanding reputations and putting them under scrutiny. Shockingly, among these statesmen is Abraham Lincoln. Hofstadter criticizes both his legacy and his political intentions. Lincoln, a president nationally regarded as a “self-made” man, nicknamed “Honest Abe,” and generally well liked, is not typically heavily criticized (Hofstadter 121). Hofstadter believed his reputation of being “self-made” was simply just a myth that he used to advance his political career and to seize opportunities of advancement (122). Although Hofstadter believes Lincoln’s reputation is not as notable as history says
Within a short amount of time after the election of Abraham Lincoln to the office of presidency, the south had seceded from the Union and brought on the beginning of the American Civil War. In 1863, the third year of the war, Lincoln had given a speech of the sacred battle ground at Gettysburg, most notably called the Gettysburg Address. In it, he expressed sincerity for those who fought and died there and most of all, proclaimed his aims of war itself. Walt Whitman, a celebrated poet of the time, traveled from hospital to hospital witnessing the operations of wounded soldiers and also the horrific scenes of death and amputation. His views were very much different than those of Abraham Lincoln and though not evident, were still noticeable in his writings. Last, none other than William T. Sherman himself, a Federal Army General, disclosed letters sent between him and the Confederate General, J. B. Hood and also letters sent between him and the mayor of Atlanta, James M. Calhoun. In them, he expresses his opinions about the war which, not-so-surprisingly, is very similar to Lincoln's.
A human being is subject to feelings that range from happiness to depression to indifferent. Whenever an author captures even some of the emotions that a person goes through, the author has made the characters realistic. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson are two perfect examples of authors who master the art of capturing feelings within the characters. Both books display instances where the characters are subject to the feelings of deceit, despair, and dejection; therefore, the characters seem as though they were alive and breathing.
Lathrop, G. P., ed. "Hawthorne, Nathaniel." The Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature. Binghamton, New York: Vail-Ballou, 1962. 439-40. Print.
Henry Thoreau uses specific rhetorical strategies in Walden to emanate his attitude towards life. With the use of many strategies Thoreau shows that life should be centered around Nature. People live their lives not ever taking a second glance of what Nature does and has done for humanity and Thoreau is trying to prove his point. Humanity owes Nature everything for without it humans would be nothing.
DiLorenzo was very successful in writing this book, Alexander Marriott states that he “reached a relatively wide audience of libertarians and conservatives.”(Marriott) DiLorenzo is very convincing in his book “The Real Lincoln” because of the many quotes and questions he presents to his audience. By persuading his readers to question all their formal beliefs of Lincoln he gets them to think Lincoln might be this monster that he portrays him to be. Lincoln probably was not a saint like many have made him out to be but he was still the man who demolished slavery and held the United States together during a tough period. By making such a historical figure look like a freud many refuted him, one article by Ken Masugi tells of how DiLorenzo misused quotes and made people believe they meant something by it that they did not. Masugi states DiLorenzo “frequently distorts the meaning of the primary sources he cites, Lincoln most of all.”(Masugi) Masugi then gives examples of how Dilorenzo misused quotes in his book. DiLorenzo’s book had strengths such as its persuasiveness, but also had weaknesses like his misuse of primary sources, and not only diminishing a few of Lincoln’s accomplishments but continuing by degrading his who he was as a
This helped develop the central idea by pulling at heartstrings. The device Lincoln used for this main idea is pathos and sentence structure. First, he uses pathos when he says, ‘’Now we are in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.’’ This appeals to our hearts because during wars, blood is shed. Notably, he uses pathos when he states, ‘’We have come here to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.’’(Lincoln, 1) This appeals to the heart since people lost their lives; this device moves us to do what is asked. Likewise, he uses sentence structure and pathos when he says, ‘’The world will little note, nor long remember what we have to say here, but it can never forget what they did here.’’(Lincoln, 1) The commas make the sentence more slow and fitting as he continues to honor the deaths. Lincoln’s use of pathos and sentence structure pull heavily at our
Lang, H.J.. “How Ambiguous Is Hawthorne.” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
Abraham Lincoln wrote one of the greatest speeches in American history known as the Gettysburg Address. It was not only used as a dedication to the fallen troops of the North and South, but as a speech to give the Union a reason to fight and attempt to unite the divided nation. The sixteenth president’s handling of his speech at Gettysburg demonstrated how the effectiveness of juxtaposition, repetition, and parallelism, could bring unity to a nation deeply divided on beliefs. His speech touched the hearts of many and indirectly put an end to the Civil War. Lincoln may have been considered a tyrant at the time but he was a great leader of a nation, a war, and a democracy.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an extraordinary writer, who used real life experiences in every one of his stories. However, growing up in a Puritan society during a reformation gave Hawthorne a distorted view on God’s character. Hawthorne was intelligent, but by no means a people person, which created a pathway for him to become an author. There were a few key points in his life growing in a religion zealous society that lead him to abandon his faith. Hence, the short story of “Young Goodman Brown” representing that humans are cynical and evil, and the dangers of losing your faith in God.
Insanity can be a dark descent into the strange, nightmarish unknown realms of the mind unable to return to the known world of reason. This is a major theme in literature, and is particularly evident in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. The nightmarish undertones are one of the main similarities in Hawthorne's and Melville's works. Another similarity is writing style. Both men write very descriptively, and their writing is based more in intellect than emotion. Also both men write about the nightmarish descent into madness.