Kyra Balls
Ms. Lehmann
English 1-3
25 September 2018
Anna Quindlen and Abraham Lincoln: Compare and Contrast
Elmer David 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. The essay will compare and contrast and Abraham Lincoln’s famous speech “The Gettysburg Address” with Anna Quindlen’s article “A Quilt of a Country.” Both authors recognize the importance of the 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” (Quindlen 3). Quindlen highlights the fact that the United States is the only country built upon the concept of equality among people from 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 authors 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 religions can 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. They also recognize the importance of patriotism.
Both Anna Quindlen and Abraham Lincoln believe in patriotism. Quindlen wants the diversity of people who make up our country to get along and be proud of our nation’s diversity. Quindlen says, “Yet even in 1994, the overwhelming majority of those surveyed by the National Opinion Research Center agreed with this statement: ‘The U.S. is a unique country that stands for something special in the world.’” (Quindlen 5). Here, Quindlen explains that our nation’s people agree that our country is special, demonstrating her own patriotism as well as that our of our nation’s people. Lincoln explains that we should be like the people who died protecting our country, because that is patriotism to him. Lincoln then says that, “[The] Government of the people, for the people, [and] by the people” is unique because no other country has the same government (Lincoln 28). Quindlen and Lincoln both agree that our country is unique and that we should support it and be proud of it.
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 be changed, but that they are central to our nation’s identity has remained true throughout our nation’s history.
Ms. Lehmann
English 1-3
25 September 2018
Anna Quindlen and Abraham Lincoln: Compare and Contrast
Elmer David 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. The essay will compare and contrast and Abraham Lincoln’s famous speech “The Gettysburg Address” with Anna Quindlen’s article “A Quilt of a Country.” Both authors recognize the importance of the 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” (Quindlen 3). Quindlen highlights the fact that the United States is the only country built upon the concept of equality among people from 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 authors 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 religions can 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. They also recognize the importance of patriotism.
Both Anna Quindlen and Abraham Lincoln believe in patriotism. Quindlen wants the diversity of people who make up our country to get along and be proud of our nation’s diversity. Quindlen says, “Yet even in 1994, the overwhelming majority of those surveyed by the National Opinion Research Center agreed with this statement: ‘The U.S. is a unique country that stands for something special in the world.’” (Quindlen 5). Here, Quindlen explains that our nation’s people agree that our country is special, demonstrating her own patriotism as well as that our of our nation’s people. Lincoln explains that we should be like the people who died protecting our country, because that is patriotism to him. Lincoln then says that, “[The] Government of the people, for the people, [and] by the people” is unique because no other country has the same government (Lincoln 28). Quindlen and Lincoln both agree that our country is unique and that we should support it and be proud of it.
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 be 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 on thing you’ve learned from writing this paper that you can apply to other writing assignments. What will that look like?
1. List on thing you’ve learned from writing this paper that you can apply to other writing assignments. What will that look like?
- I learned how to change up a sentence and make sure that I wasn’t plagiarizing in my essay. Knowing this can help me make sure that I’m not plagiarizing and get a better grade.
- I was asked to add more detail to my sentences so that the sentence would flow better for the essay. I went back and added all the extra words for the sentence. I learned that the more detail you put into your essay the more it will make since.
- I used the authors names throughout the essay and also the textbook the stories were in.
- I would maybe try and make it longer and also try to prof read my essay and fix my errors before I turned it in.
- I was proud of writing the patriotism paragraph because I think that’s the one paragraph I got the best score on that I did myself.