Custom essays on John Dickinson

1. What rhetorical purposes might be served by John Dickinson’s writing of his letters anonymously as a “farmer?”
John Dickinson attempted to hide his personality under the anonymous signature of a “farmer” to show the audience that he is an ordinary person, an average American, who shares the same values and norms as thousands and millions of other Americans. Being a farmer helped John Dickinson to make his letter more persuading and closer to average people. In such a way, he reached the mass audience and persuaded people to accept his ideas and concepts and to follow his lead.
At the same time, farmer implied the traditional American lifestyle because it is farmers, who were associated with frontier and expansion of the US westward. Therefore, farmers born certain heroic image and John Dickinson used the image of a farmer as the appeal to traditional values that helped him to gain respect of the audience and to accept his message he conveyed through his letters.
In such a way, farmer becomes an important rhetorical tool with the help of which John Dickinson closes the gap between him and his audience. He pretends to be an ordinary American, who cares not about abstract interests of the nation or the country but about interests of ordinary people, who have their own routine needs and wants. The use of this image of the farmer evokes strong associations with the traditional American lifestyle and the audience can hardly keep from accepting the message conveyed by Dickinson. Thus, Dickinson presents himself as one of Americans, a sort of a guy living next door.
Dickinson is more persuasive for his audience as a farmer because the public would trust to a farmer because a farmer is a fellow-man of any average American. What is meant here is the fact that Americans were tired of the authorities and politicians, who attempted to impose their opinion on Americans. Americans did not really trust those in power. They felt disappointed in the political and economic elite of colonies and Great Britain. Moreover, they had quite a hostile attitude toward the British, whom they perceived as haughty and arrogant people, who believed in their superiority compared to colonists. In such a context, Dickinson’s decision to speak as a farmer was absolutely correct because the public did trust him. The trust of Americans derived from the belief that Dickinson, the farmer, was one of them and Americans believed that he could not deceive them. Moreover, they believed that the farmer did know all their problems and he could offer reasonable and effective solution to their problems.
In addition, the farmer sounds persuading because he symbolizes an American colonist. In fact, a farmer is a person, who invades the Wild West and who knows what the life in colonies actually is. Hence, people would believe him just because he had the authority of a person, who had an extensive experience and who is not accustomed to avoid hardships and difficulties. Instead, Americans believed that the farmer could cope with all the problems and hardships he faced in his life. Hence, Americans believed the farmer would probably be able to change the life of colonists for better if he could get a chance to take decisions and lead colonists to a better life.
2. How does Dickinson use language to connect the issue of taxation to the issue of liberty?
Dickinson uses simple, comprehensible language, which is even simplistic in a way to show that he is an ordinary person. In such a way, he makes his letters comprehensible to the mass audience. In addition, he maintains the belief in the audience that he is struggling for interests of average Americans. At the same time, he connects the issue of taxation with the issue of liberty through the elaboration of simple but metaphoric language.
On the one hand, John Dickinson uses simple words. On the other hand, he refers to the material interests of Americans and extrapolates them to spiritual values such as liberty. What is meant here is the fact that he uses the taxation, which affects all Americans as the reason to struggle for liberty, which is not material as taxation and, therefore, less comprehensible to Americans. Instead, Americans understood perfectly well what taxation was and, when Dickinson used the issue of taxation as the pretext to the struggle for liberty, Americans understood him pretty well.
Obviously, Dickinson uses the language to make the issue of taxation the preamble to the introduction of the issue of liberty. At the same time, Dickinson focuses his attention on the use of simple and comprehensible language which is intentionally deprived of haughty words, which are meaningless to average Americans. Instead, he uses simple words and concepts which every American faces in his or her daily life on the regular basis. Moreover, Dickinson makes the issue of liberty as close to Americans as the issue of taxation, which affect their life consistently. In such a way, Dickinson explains an abstract concept of liberty on the ground of simple terms and the concrete concept of taxation.