Write 500 words on this: "How believable is this book?"
Parson's Weems's Life of Washington is certainly a most interesting, descriptive and compelling tale. As to it's believability, there is a lot of stories that are fictional and have no evidence to them. Parson weaves a intricate loom of Washington's life through some personal accounts from fellow acquaintances and friends. He tells of Washington's youth and how he was a hard-working, honest child, with admirable character. Washington's father instilled in him the virtues of integrity,morality and the love and fear of God. Augustine Washington died when his son was only 11, but he spent his time wisely instructing and guiding him though life.
Weems portrays Washington in a very exaggerated light of immorality and perfection, that is rather biased.. This work holds continual praise for him, and all the wonderful, note-worthy things he accomplished in 67 years. As a general, soldier, statesman, and president, he played many different roles in his life. Weems particularly emphasizes the fact that our our 1st president never sat around idle, with nothing to occupy himself. He was constantly making improvements and doing work, in spite of his achievements. There are examples of other famous rulers, such as David, who fell into sin and temptation because they were wasting time.
This was never an issue for Washington, who didn't have time for evil distractions.He was always keeping himself busy with some useful, practical task that needed tending. He was a courageous leader of his army, who never shirked his duty whatsoever. He was even willing to abandon his work as a businessman, to serve his nation in the war. He lost a considerable amount of money when he left, with no one managing his wife's property. But to him this was a small price to pay, in regards to his commitment to his country.
Certainly no one could question that George Washington was a hard-working, industrious individual. He was indeed an excellent role-model for children/teenagers to look up to. They could model their beloved president,definitely in his characteristics of diligence and perseverance. In everything he had to do, he applied himself with zeal and poured his whole heart into it.
Naturally parents would want their children to exemplify such a fine life-style, which would lead to a very successful life. Regardless of their wealth or social position, there was nothing that couldn't be achieved by simple hard work. Weems even claims that they could one day be as prominent as Washington, if they would just learn to be productive and labor as tirelessly as he did. Of course he also gave instances of George as a child, such as the cherry tree story. This was a classic illustration of Washington's commendable attributes even from a young age. This happened when he was only six and was gifted with a small hatchet. He was thrilled with his gift, until he accidentally cut down one of his father's precious cherry trees.
When questioned about it later on, he instantly admitted he was to blame for the unfortunate incident. Many a child his age would have lied, but he was quick to humbly confess what he had done. His contrite, remorseful spirit was the ideal attitude to have as a response to the situation. Yet there is no verification from any reliable source that shows this event ever took place. There is a number of such fabrications that were never confirmed by historians or writers. Of course, at the time there was no effective system of book reviews. No one thought to question Weems on his facts, or had the resources to do so. George Washington had been dead less than a year, when this was published. Not a single person had of yet had documented his long, prosperous.existence.
So all the American population knew of their beloved leader was the information being fed them by this book agent. Like any author, his sole intent was to generate a lot of copies and make money from his writings. He was well-aware that the relevant topic of Washington would be sure to attract people's attention. The public would be eager to glean as much as possible about the life of such a powerful man,now that he had passed. They would be even more willing to purchase it, because it was advertised at a low price.
In conclusion, I would say most of the stories aren't believable and are embellished to a ridiculous extreme.
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