Justyce Schilz Ms. Lehmann English 1-3 25 September 2018 Compare and Contrast Paper 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” (Quindlen3). 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 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. Quidlensays 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 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 and 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. Anna Quindlen and Abraham Lincoln both value unity and patriotism. Anna Quindlen and Abraham Lincoln both believe that patriotism is a necessary component of the U.S. Both authors are proud of their country and want their audience to be proud of it, too. Quindlen wants to show her audience how strongly she believes in patriotism and the freedom and diversity of the U.S. Anna Quindlen states that, “The U.S. is a unique country that stands for something special in the world” (Quindlen 5). The author clearly states that the U.S. has many different people in the country and they all get along. Her patriotism lies in her pride that her country has peace between different people. Lincoln shows patriotism by honoring the soldiers he views as patriots and urging his audience to be like those soldiers. Lincoln states,”We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”(Lincoln 28). Lincoln feels strongly that we all need to be patriots like the dead and wounded soldiers were. Both authors value patriotism in their own way. 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 cental 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 have learned how to start a paper better and make it flow better. After I learned that, my papers should now be more complete and should be able to make more sense than before. 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 multiple times to take out information that was not needed. I made sure to take out that information that was not needed and took it out of my paper to make sure that it made more sense. I learned how to not add information that was not needed in the essay. 3. What are the conventions of a compare and contrast essay and how did you meet those in this assignment? ~First, you have to have an introduction and in that introduction there has to be a thesis statement and you have to reword your conclusion. Then you have to organize the essay by topic or work. You have to have parallel structure in the essay and that is where if you start a paragraph with one author you have to continue to start your paragraphs with the same author every time. Then you have to compare and contrast in the essay while using evidence. 4. Given more time to work on this assignment, how would you improve it? ~ I would make it longer and explain things more. I would make sure to read over it and make sure that it flowed and there was not a lot of additional information. 5. What is one thing you’re proud of in this paper? ~ I am proud of how this paper was more complete. I felt like this paper was more detailed and had more information. I thought it was a pretty good paper. There was a couple of mistakes but for the most part it was good.