Jadon Johnson Ms. Lehmann English 1-3 25 September 2018 Compare and Contrast Elmer Davis once said, “This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it remains the land of the brave.” Many people have expressed opinions about what is necessary to keep America’s ideals alive, including Abraham Lincoln and Anna Quindlen. This essay will compare and contrast Abraham Lincoln’s famous speech “The Gettysburg Address” with Anna Quindlen’s article “A Quilt of a Country.” Both authors recognize the importance of equality to our national identity. Anna Quindlen and Abraham Lincoln both strive to convince their audiences to treat one another equally. Both authors make the argument that treating one another equally will lead to a more peaceful nation. Quindlen urges her audience to end the tensions between the various cultures that exist within the United States. She describes our nation as “a mongrel nation built of ever-changing disparate parts…held together by…the notion that all men are created equal” (3). Quindlen highlights the fact that the United States is the only country built upon the concept of equality among people from a variety of cultural backgrounds. One hundred and thirty eight years earlier, Abraham Lincoln spoke to an entire audience of Americans urging them to fight for the equality of slaves. Lincoln wrote that America was “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” (Lincoln 27). While Quindlen talks about equality among diverse cultures, Lincoln urges the nation to end slavery. While the goals of the author are different, both of them recognize equality as a defining value to our nation. Similar parallels can be seen in their opinions about unity. Both Abraham Lincoln and Anna Quindlen want to bring the United States of America’s people together. Quindlen wants to unite the various, diverse cultures that live in the U.S. Quindlen says that our country stands for the “vexing notion that a great nation can consist entirely of refugees from other nations, that people of different, even warring religious and cultures can live, if not side by side, then on either side of the country’s Chester Avenues” (Quindlen 5). Here, the author clearly values unity explains that one of the unique and valuable characteristics of this country is that diverse people can coexist peacefully as one complete nation. While Quindlen seeks to unify diverse cultures, Lincoln sought to unify the North and South during the Civil War. Lincoln begins his speech by telling the audience that “now, we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure” (Lincoln 27). Lincoln urges his audience to work toward the goal of unifying the nation to ensure the survival of our country. Both authors agree that unifying our people will lead to the survival of our nation. Unifying our people is a big part of patriotism in our country. Abraham Lincoln and Anna Quindlen both believe that patriotism in this country is important for survival. Both Lincoln and Quindlen want the people to love their country no matter who lives in the U.S. Quindlen writes “Patriotism is partly taking pride in this unlikely ability to throw all of us together in a country that across its length and breadth is as different as a dozen countries, and still be able to call it by one name”(Quindlen 6). Quindlen is explaining that Americans have trouble swallowing their pride and help or even talk to the different, unknown, or currently under suspicion. Lincoln writes “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here” (Lincoln 27). Lincoln is saying that Americans will never forget what the soldiers did here, and American citizens should be proud of them and finish their fight. The authors agree that with patriotism the country will last and be one of a kind. There are a lot more agreements that are explained. Anna Quindlen and Abraham Lincoln share many similarities and differences in the values they see in our nation. Both “The Gettysburg Address” and “A Quilt of a Country” explore the values of equality, unity, and patriotism, though they do so in different ways. By examining these two authors, one can trace how our nation’s values have changed over time. Ultimately, how these values look may have changed, but that they are central to our nation’s identity has remained true throughout our nation’s history.
Compare and Contrast Reflection 1. List one thing you’ve learned from writing this paper that you can apply to other writing assignments. What will that look like? I learned the steps of writing the summary. I won’t be lost next time I write a summary.
2. Identify a specific revision you were asked to make and explain why (this can be at any stage of the writing process). How did you revise? What did you learn? I was asked to correct a quote. I properly corrected the quote as needed and I learned how to properly give credit where credit is due.
3. What are the conventions of a compare and contrast essay and how did you meet those in this assignment? The conventions of a summary are including the author, title, genre, and big idea in the first sentence of the summary. I did this in every summary paragraph. I also put the main points in chronological order because that is a convention, and I didn’t include any opinions. I did this in all of my summaries.
4. Given more time to work on this assignment, how would you improve it? I would've given more quotes to compare.
5. What is one thing you’re proud of in this paper? I am proud that I worked hard on it and made it seem professional.