Rosie Ortega Ms. Lehmann English 1-3 25 September 2018 “A Quilt of a Country” and “The Gettysburg Address” 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 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” (Quindlen 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 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 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 the 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 talk about having peace in the United States. Quindlen wants to have peace between diverse people. Quindlen states “Other countries with such divisions have in fact divided into new nations with new names, but not this one, impossibly interwoven even in its hostiles” (Quindlen 4). In this quote embraces Quindlen is trying to say that being together, as one, is better for us all. Quindlen diversity. Abraham Lincoln, on the other hand, wants peace among Americans without different political views specially, the North and the South. Lincoln states “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us” (Lincoln 28). In his quote, Lincoln states that if we should all be together and have peace among us. Both Quindlen and Lincoln agree on having peace among all of us by them both saying that if we do, we could make out nation a better. In conclusion, 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 peace, though they do so in different ways. By examining these two authors, one can trace how out 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
List one thing you’ve learned from writing this paper that you can apply to other writing assignments. What will that look like? If I were to describe more details and tell show how the author wanted to tell their story from their point of view. My papers would be longer with more descriptions and make sure that everyone that reads them will know exactly what I’m talking about and why.
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 revised using my work sheet and went back over everything to make sure my paper flowed all together. I learned that when you start adding more description you need to make sure that you don’t get distracted and add more things then you need or that you aren’t relevant.
What are the conventions of a compare and contrast essay and how did you meet those in this assignment? The conventions of a compare and contrast essay are the intro talking about the thesis and conclusion. Next, you would organize by topic or work. Then, have parallel structure and talk about the compare and contrast. Show evidence about your compare and contrast essay. I made sure that I included everything that needed to be in my essay and followed my guidelines.
Given more time to work on this assignment, how would you improve it? I would make sure that I talked about my quotations and why I chose those words to help me describe the part where both authors talk about having peace.
What is one thing you’re proud of in this paper? I’m proud that at the end of the essay I was able to make sense on why I chose to pick those main points in my essay. I think I did pretty well in this compare and contrast essay.