Tocqueville Letter Analysis

The tone of Tocqueville’s letter is serious, honest, and sarcastic. Towards the end of the letter, his tone was serious when he was describing the native Indians that were being removed from their land. He was describing a women that was of a hundred and ten years of age; he explains how she was naked except for a blanket that was covering her. When Tocqueville was talking about the women he said, “I have never seen a more frightening figure.” Here he was being both serious and honest. In the beginning of the letter, Tocqueville’s tone is more sarcastic. In the second paragraph, he says “They have discovered, moreover, that, as it was proved (listen to this well) that a square mile could support ten time more civilized men than savage men,” Because he said “listen to …show more content…
First, in a tone not so serious, he says “They have discovered, moreover, that, as it was proved (listen to this well) that a square mile could support ten times more civilized men than savage men, reason indicated that wherever civilized men could settle, it was necessary that the savages cede the place.” He is explaining how the Americans reason for moving the Native Americans is because they believe that they can support ten times more men than the Native Americans can. Tocqueville says this in a sarcastic tone because he disagrees with why the Americans made the Native Americans move. Another time, he says, “It abandons forever the soil on which, perhaps for a thousand years, its fathers have lived, in order to go settle in a wilderness where the whites will not leave them ten years in peace.” This is another sentence that shows that he does not accept the American Justification for removal. He is explaining how the Native Americans fathers lived on that land and now the Americans are not giving the Native Americans peace. Tocqueville said this to show us why the Americans should not have removed the Indians from their