The first time a child leaves home is an important milestone in every family. This principle applies to even families belonging to the nobility in the mid-eighteenth century. In Lord Chesterfield’s letter to his son, he voices many opinions about him that many parents would like to say to their children even today. Lord Chesterfield skillfully uses subliminal messages in diction, humble concessions, contradictory language, indirect threats, and demoralizing lectures to impose his values on his insubordinate son. It is clear to the reader that his son takes his father for granted and the letter is a last-ditch effort by Lord Chesterfield to help him.
Lord Chesterfield’s apprehensive warning shows the adoration he has for his young son, who has traveled far away from his home to receive a college education. By using anaphora and metaphor, he is informing his son that the world he is about to dive into will not always be temperate, but can easily get hot. Chesterfield, just like any other dad, truly has his son’s best interest at heart. The author’s diction demonstrates how he understands the trials and tribulations that his son will imminently be experiencing. He “know{s}” that “advice {is} generally” “unwelcome” and he “know{s}” that its not “followed”, however he “know{s}” that teenagers still “want it.” By using anaphora he is telling his son that he accepts the fact his advice will be rejected on the outside, but will be stored in a memory bank on the inside.
In the two short stories it seems as if the sons’ relationships with their father were quite different, but they also had their similarities because both of them cared for their son. In the story “Powder” the father took good care of his son for he continually tried to give his son what he thought was best. He fought for the privilege to see his son after he already snuck him into a jazz club to see Thelonious Monk (Wolff 1). He was a good dad, for as his son says “He wouldn’t give up. He promised, hand on heart, to take good care of me and have me home for dinner on Christmas Eve” (Wolff 1).
This input from the boy helps build the father and son's relationship that the whole novel is based on. Another aspect of the father and son relationship is their love they have for one another. Many of the fathers actions help exemplify the love he has for his son. Throughout the novel there a countless number of times when the father puts his son before himself. For example, the father gives his son the last of the food and water.
Adam has finally has his father and son moment with one of his children that he is grateful to express himself to his son Cal. By saying he trusts Cal he has gain even more love and forgiveness for not being with his children for many years. Plus, Adam is able to not be like his father but instead be the opposite with just one of his children. Cal – “He though sardonically of telling him about his mother, to see how he would handle I, but he withdrew the though quickly. He didn’t think Aron could handle it at all,” (Steinbeck 586).
“Words give us symbolic vehicles to communicate our creations and discoveries to others”. When Sonny told his father that he adopted a kid, the specific words he used had a strong influence on the dad’s reaction. Beebe, Beebe, and Ivy also noted that “when you label something good or bad you use language to create your own vision of how you experience the world”. In this particular scene, Sonny was stuttering a lot and his words symbolized his confusion of the current situation. Beebe, Beebe, & Ivy (2012) noted that “words and actions are tools we use to let someone know whether we support them or not”(p.76) Jack Gibbs has researched supportive and defensive communication for a couple years now and he defines defensive communication as “a language that creates a climate of hostility and mistrust”(p. 76-77) In the scene the father uses crude language and even goes to the extent of saying that “the kid would be better off living in a dumpster than with Sonny” (Adam Sandler).
This shows that the boy loves his father and doesn’t believe he should sacrifice anything for him. Another scene that shows this type of love is when the man reads the boy a book. This scene could be interpreted in many ways, such as the man helping the boy escape from reality. This could also be interpreted as the man showing love towards his son and the son showing that he loves him too. This scene could be symbolic to an ideal picture of family and love, with a father reading to his son next to a warm fire.
In the excerpt from the letter written by Lord Chesterfield to his son, he implies that he would like to advise his son and also reveal his own values. The author uses several rhetorical strategies throughout the text, such as anaphoras, rhetorical questions, and metaphors, which indicate his own values. Lord Chesterfield uses long sentences, separated by colons or semicolons, which may suggest he wants to advise his son in a quick, but friendly manner. Lord Chesterfield uses irony by when he first addresses his son, he does not “mean to dictate as a parent; only to advise as a friend.” As the letter continues though, he hints to his son that he is his father, and indeed he wants him to listen and follow to what he is informing his son of. The author also continues to explain to his son that he is “absolutely dependent upon him” and that “he neither had, nor can have a
Lord Chesterfield reveals, through his extensive use of litotes (understatement), anaphora (repetition), and various other rhetorical modes, his ill-conceived values of competition for its own sake as well as a haughty superiority complex. One of the first things that comes to mind upon reading this essay is the discounting of a statement followed by a subsequent qualification of that statement, referred to as litotes (understatement). Lord Chesterfield employs understatement skillfully, in a way such that he in essence molds his son’s thinking by telling him exactly what and what not to believe. From the onset, it is clear that Lord Chesterfield is in control. As a parental figure, the Lord knows “how unwelcome advice generally is,”but reassuredly consoles his son “that I can have no interest but yours.” This qualification is subtle but important, establishing Lord Chesterfield as a beneficent presence, not as an intrusive force.
Some of the don’ts were his family, cancer, and religion whereas he would agree to talk about his childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others and how you can put it into action as said in his video lecture on YouTube then there is Siddhartha who is a fictional character who grows up as the son of a Brahmin that is seen to be destined for great. “…he saw him growing up to be a great sage and priest, a prince among the Brahmins.”(Siddhartha, 3) Are the thoughts of his father. Translator Hermann Hesse produced Siddhartha as a guy to be loved and praised by everyone. The only problem was that Siddhartha did not enjoy it or feel delighted by all the attention. Now that both stories have been introduced, obviously there is some kind of intangible place both