Many people write a persuasive letter of extreme importance at least once in their lives, but, I would hope, for less grave of a matter than that of Roger Frethorne in his “A letter to Father and Mother”. As an indentured servant in colonial America, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean from his English family, Roger uses rhetorical devices to express his plea to be saved from his servitude by his parents.
Roger petitions the humanity of his parents through the use of the rhetorical appeal of pathos. He tells his parents that there is “much sickness, as the scurvy and the bloody flux, and diverse other diseases, which make the body very poor and weak” (Frethorne, p1). In addition, he also says that they “live in fear of the Enemy” (Frethorne, p1). The “Enemy” that Frethorne speaks about is the …show more content…
He says that “I have nothing to comfort me, nor there is nothing to be gotten here but sickness, and death” (Frethorne, p2) This would be a hard thing for his parents to read, and that is Frethorne’s idea. He wants to make his parents so guilty for sending him to the colony, that they buy his debt, and free him. He also says that”[I] have nothing at all, no not a shirt to my back, but two rags nor no clothes, but one poor suit, nor but one pair of shoes, but one pair of stockings, but one cap, and but two band[s],”(Frethorne, p2), which shows that he is poorer than he was in England, and now he is “not half of a quarter [an eighth] so strong as I was in England” (Frethorne, P2), which shows that he is much weaker than he was when his parents last saw him. The reason of his diminished strength is quite clear when he explains to his father that “a mouthful of bread for a penny loaf must serve for four men, which is most pitiful” (Frethorne, p1). All told, the tone of the letter is one of the bleak existence of a man who is very poor, weak, malnourished, sickly, and on his
Roger petitions the humanity of his parents through the use of the rhetorical appeal of pathos. He tells his parents that there is “much sickness, as the scurvy and the bloody flux, and diverse other diseases, which make the body very poor and weak” (Frethorne, p1). In addition, he also says that they “live in fear of the Enemy” (Frethorne, p1). The “Enemy” that Frethorne speaks about is the …show more content…
He says that “I have nothing to comfort me, nor there is nothing to be gotten here but sickness, and death” (Frethorne, p2) This would be a hard thing for his parents to read, and that is Frethorne’s idea. He wants to make his parents so guilty for sending him to the colony, that they buy his debt, and free him. He also says that”[I] have nothing at all, no not a shirt to my back, but two rags nor no clothes, but one poor suit, nor but one pair of shoes, but one pair of stockings, but one cap, and but two band[s],”(Frethorne, p2), which shows that he is poorer than he was in England, and now he is “not half of a quarter [an eighth] so strong as I was in England” (Frethorne, P2), which shows that he is much weaker than he was when his parents last saw him. The reason of his diminished strength is quite clear when he explains to his father that “a mouthful of bread for a penny loaf must serve for four men, which is most pitiful” (Frethorne, p1). All told, the tone of the letter is one of the bleak existence of a man who is very poor, weak, malnourished, sickly, and on his