John Downe's Letter: Rhetorical Strategies
...ther cross the Atlantic ten times than hear my children cry victuals once,” when he explains the sorrow he felt when leaving his family in England as he emigrated across the Atlantic. By making this insinuation that he would rather cross the Atlantic ten times, he invokes a very sad feeling which would make his wife desire to reunite with him simply to keep his from such suffering. Generally, the entire letter consisted of loaded language and emotional appeals. Downe tries to persuade with not only emotion, but through logical appeals as will in order to accomplish the overall goal of his letter. He makes it seem as though the most reasonable thing to do is to simply agree with the letter. For example, he tries to explain how much better the standard of living is in America by describing the astonishing amount of food. He claims that “outside the market there was bullocks’ and sheep’s and lambs’ heads laying underfoot like dog’s meat. They cut the tongue, and throw the rest away.” Any logical person would start wondering after reading that statement whether it would be better to live in England where a life of poverty awaits or in America where food is abundant. He continues his logical appeals by claiming there “was more than 1000 emigrants came in the day after” he landed, “but there is plenty of room yet, and will for a thousand years to come.” By making this exaggerated statement, he makes it seem as though everyone is making the move, thus using the bandwagon appeal. Also, by saying that there is still plenty of space left, he manages to make it seem logical to emigrate to a country that has open space for development. John Downe hopes that if logical and emotional appeals do not persuade his wife, hopefully the ethical appeals of his letter would be able to reach out and convince her. He starts by claiming, “America is not like England, for here no man thinks himself your superior.” Obviously a reasonable person would much rather be in America where he would be treated morally correct over England where he could be considered to be as low as scum. The letter Downe wrote is suggesting that “superiors”...