Adams's Letters APLAC ...

Adams’s LettersAPLACNAME________________________________________________________After reading Abigail Adams’ letter to her husband, answer the following questions:1. What is revealed about Abigail (the writer) in this letter? Underline words or phrases that support your answer.2. What ethos does Abigail Adams establish in the opening paragraph? How do the questions contribute to the personashe presents?3. Abigail describes Boston in considerable detail. What is the general impression she tries to convey? Why do youthink she chose the details she did?4. What is revealed about John (the audience/reader) in this letter? Support your answer with direct reference to thisletter.5. How does Abigail’s close attention to diction keep her from sounding accusatory and alienating her husband? Explain.After reading John’s response to his wife, answer the following questions:1. What is further revealed about the relationship between Abigail and John? Refer to the letter to support your answer.2. What does John’s response to Abigail’s plea reveal about his attitude toward women? Underline words or phrases tosupport your opinion.3. Describe John’s tone in contrast to Abigail’s. Use words or phrases from the letter to support your answers.4. Is the last paragraph of John’s letter tongue‐in‐cheek, or is he serious? What does he mean by “The Despotism of thePeticoat”? How do you interpret this ending?

Read the following letter, from Abigail to John, and then answer the questions that follow:Abigail Adams to John AdamsBraintree May 7, 1776How many are the solitary hours I spend, ruminating upon the past, and anticipating the future, whilst you overwhelmd with the caresof State, have but few moments you can devote to any individual. All domestick pleasures and injoyments are absorbed in the greatand important duty you owe your Country "for our Country is as it were a secondary God, and the First and greatest parent. It is to bepreferred to Parents, Wives, Children, Friends and all things the Gods only excepted. For if our Country perishes it is as imposible tosave an Individual, as to preserve one of the fingers of a Mortified Hand." Thus do I supress every wish, and silence every Murmer,acquiesceing in a painfull Seperation from the companion of my youth, and the Friend of my Heart….A Goverment of more Stability is much wanted in this colony, and they are ready to receive it from the Hands of theCongress, and since I have begun with Maxims of State I will add an other viz. that a people may let a king fall, yet still remain apeople, but if a king let his people slip from him, he is no longer a king. And as this is most certainly our case, why not proclaim to theWorld in decisive terms your own importance~Shall we not be dispiced by foreign powers for hesitateing so long at a word?I can not say that I think you very generous to the Ladies, for whilst you are proclaiming peace and good will to Men,Emancipating all Nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over Wives. But you must remember that Arbitary power is likemost other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken--and notwithstanding all your wise Laws and Maxims we have it in ourpower not only to free ourselves but to subdue our Masters, and without voilence throw both your natural and legal authority at ourfeet….I thank you for several Letters which I have received since I wrote Last. They alleviate a tedious absence, and I long earnestlyfor a Saturday Evening, and experience a similar pleasure to that which I used to find in the return of my Friend upon that day after aweeks absence.Our Little ones whom you so often recommend to my care and instruction shall not be deficient in virtue or probity if theprecepts of a Mother have their desired Effect, but they would be doubly inforced could they be indulged with the example of a Fatherconstantly before them…1. How does Abigail feel about John’s response to her plea for women’s rights?2. What does Abigail’s response to John’s letter reveal about this remarkable lady?3. In another letter to John dated April, 1776, Abigail added in a postscript, “I wish you would burn all my letters.” Whywould she make this comment about her letters?4. Suppose John were her son, not her husband. How and why would the tone of the letters have changed?