As most parents know, it is difficult to get your child to do what you want them to do most of the time. Whichever option you propose, they quickly pick the opposite. Therefore, the best option is to advise your child of the consequences and dangers of doing the wrong action is. Abigail adams writes a letter to her son advising him about his travels abroad, she uses distinct metaphors, peculiar  rhetorical questions, and satirical irony.

Adams wants the best for her son so she is trying to get information into his mind that will improve the efficiency of his travels. She uses metaphors which are easier to retain so he has the best advice when he is traveling. On lines 34-36 she wrote, “All history will convince you of this, and that wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure.” This metaphor signifies to her son that if he goes on this trip he will gain knowledge and chances in life that he will never have again. Like fruit, wisdom and penetration can always be formed, it is good for the body, and if it is not taken care of, will spoil. The use of the metaphor will get it lodged into his brain what is needed.

Along with the effect of metaphors, Adams also uses rhetorical questions. This way, John Quincy Adams will think for himself what his mom is trying to get him to realize. On lines 30-32 she says, “Would Cicero have shone so distinguished an orator if he had not been roused, kindled, and inflamed by the tyranny of Catiline, Verres, and Mark Anthony?” By bringing up this question, she gets her son to think in the way that she is thinking. She alludes to men and groups of people that he is familiar with to strengthen her question and develop the power of her essay. Even though John Adams probably does not want to hear this information, without it he would not be able to have as good as a trip abroad.

To further pound more advice into her son, Adams uses the technique of irony. This highlights the fact that she is still her mother and that he has to listen to her. In the last paragraph of the essay on lines 62-63 she says “-parents supremely happy, particularly your ever affectionate mother.” At first this seems like any normal ending to a letter from a mother to a son but it is ironic. Adams is telling her son to do something that he does not want to do and then claiming herself as an affectionate mother. At the same time as it is ironic it has a snarky tone behind it. Only mothers can pull this technique off because they know they can not be argued with. This reminds her son that she needs to be listened to and knows that what she is doing is for his own good.

Abigail Adams is being just like any other mom. She wants her son to have the best time he can without flaw. John Adams at first may have taken this letter in a negative way but will realize in the long run the positive effects it had on him.