A Rhetorical Analysis Of Thomas Paine's Common Sense

In the book by Thomas Paine called Common Sense, mostly covers the subject of American Independence. In the beginning of his argument, paine reflects on government and religion. According to Paine’s point of view, society is everything to help the people join together to accomplish a constructive good. He believes that government is only purpose is to protect the people from themselves.Government has its start with the bad of man and is therefore a necessary evil at best. He says that government's main purpose should be to protect our freedom and our rights, paine also believes that a government should be judged merely to extent to which it manage the target

He wants the people to be on the American side, and actually support them in the major war for this country. When he presents figurative language in his paper that contributes to another document, “Common Sense”, Paine doesn’t use as much simile but presents many metaphors. For the first example of a simile says that Great Britain “...was driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc.”, which shows how wimpy the British are because when they fought with France they surrendered in defeat to a woman, and women didn’t have much support back then. Another simile is about a fox, that represents Howe, the British General, “...to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war, the cunning of the fox is a murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both.”, which shows how evil the General is as well. The first example of a metaphor used by Thomas Paine is, “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”,

In The Crisis No. 1, Thomas Paine creates an objective tone to unite and rally the nation by showing what kind of man the King of Britain is. Paine achieved his goal by using a variety of rhetorical devices. He connected to the nation through the use of his

Although Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense to express displeasure towards the british regime, his greater purpose was to rally the colonist against the tyranny of the mother country, therefore establishing inalienable rights that would become the groundwork of the United States.

In the pamphlet, “Common Sense,” written by Thomas Paine to the current inhabitants of America, he addresses the flaws of the reasoning of the loyalists and persuasively shows the audience the right path. He does this effectively by appealing to the rhetoric form of logos, setting up each of his arguments with a parallel structure, and by using simple language that everyone can understand.

Paine effectively used low language and vivid imagery to create what amounts to the most successful propaganda tool in history. He made a point in demonizing King George as a “brute” and painting Great Britain as a “parasitic” overseer, sucking profit from its American Colonies while returning nothing but oppression. His use of plain rhetoric; however was his most powerful weapon, the very title of the work implied that what Paine presented was simple logic, that it could be grasped by anyone. He plainly appealed to the already embattled colonists that “the period for debate is closed” on the issue of the Revolution, that the Crown had “made the choice to pursue bloodshed” and that there was only one

Common Sense was read throughout the colonies in all classes of life, whether all people were Paine’s intended audience is indicated in the way his pamphlet is formatted and phrased. His intended audience was every single American colonist. Paine wrote his pamphlet in plain terms, with no fancy or political phrases, easy for the lowest of intellect to understand. In his discussion about the difference between society and government, he took the time and paper to discuss the difference between the two, the one for wants, the other for wickedness (Paine, 1). He does similar things throughout the rest of this pamphlet, giving detailed discussions of all his arguments, leaving little to the imagination or interpretation. While writing his paper Paine kept in mind his audience and focused on all details that not all everyday men and

Common Sense challenged the authority of the British Government. It was the first pamphlet to advocate American Independence. Some of the things Paine covered: the superiority of republican government over a monarchical system, equality of rights among all citizens, and the world significance of the American Independence. Paine wanted his thoughts to be heard and to have other people think about what he has said. His goal was to help America become free from the British.

In December of 1776, in the midst of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine, an audacious and rebellious persuasive writer living in the American colonies, gathered the attention of fellow colonists, militiamen, and military generals through his controversial opinions and creative writing style, particularly illustrated in his essay, “The Crisis No. 1.” Paine, a dauntless supporter of the revolution, wrote his essay urging colonists to join the fight and earn their freedom through battle. In order to construct his eloquent and compelling essay, he used an impressive combination of the persuasive techniques; rhetorical appeal, figurative language, and tone.

In the pamphlet Common Sense by Thomas Paine, one of the most influential reformers at the time, Paine explicitly explains why the colonies should politically and economically separate from Great Britain. His viewpoint is that the colonies should be independent of Great Britain since they’ve suffered under unfair British autocratic rule for too long. His viewpoint is developed through the usage of figurative language as well as rhetorical appeal and supported in his counterargument. Therefore, Paine’s viewpoint is that America should be independent of Great Britain. One of the techniques Paine uses to develop his argument is figurative language.

In 1775-1776, the colonists almost gave up in their fight against Great Britain. They needed the motivation to keep fighting for their freedom. The speeches of Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine convinced the colonists to keep fighting against Great Britain for their independence. In both of their speeches, they used rhetorical devices to support their claim and created rhetorical appeals to persuade the colonists to risk their lives to defend their rights. Both Henry and Paine used many rhetorical devices and rhetorical appeals in their speeches to encourage the colonists to gain their liberty from Great Britain and defend their country, the United States of America.

In 1776, an important event was happening in the United States, the Revolutionary war. The thirteen colonies wanted to break away from Britain’s rule, however the chances of winning were very slim. For this reason, 1/3 of the citizens were for a revolution, 1/3 of the citizens were against it, and 1/3 of them were undecided. Thomas Paine realized that to become a free and independent nation, he would need the help of every citizen in the colonies. Because of this he wrote The Crisis No. 1 to increase the morale of the people, so that they would fight against Britain in the war. In The Crisis No. 1 Thomas Paine effectively used rhetorical devices to convince people to fight in the revolutionary war.

In 1776, a young man who had been unsuccessful for most of his life, Thomas Paine published the pamphlet Common Sense. The pamphlet persuaded the colonists to declare independence from England, and take up arms in the Revolutionary War. Common Sense was highly effective in motivating the colonists to permanently separate from England and form a new nation. In American history, Thomas Paine became known as one our founding fathers. Paine’s influence on American history is vastly significant, and remnants of that influence continues to be an aspect of our nation today. When analyzing Common Sense as a historical source, it can be seen that Paine utilizes the rhetorical appeals of ethos and logos to gain support for independence from England, and support for liberation from the hereditary succession in a monarchy.

After the threat of a possible British invasion intended to disperse any thoughts of rebellion, the colonists’ opinion on revolution varied throughout the colonies. Thomas Paine genuinely believed fighting for freedom was the best choice for America, even though he understood it would be a hard task to undertake. Because of this, Paine used his writing skills to attempt to unite the colonies to support the fight for freedom. In order to reach the largest amount of people, Paine incorporated simple language into his writing.

Thomas Paine, one of the United States’ greatest minds behind the American Revolution, published Common Sense in 1776 with intent on persuading the colonies to pursue a war already bound to happen. His simple gripping prose promoted the premise that the rebellion was not about subjects wronged by their monarch, but a group of independent people being oppressed by a foreign government. Common Sense played a drastic part in the American Revolution, as its use of rhetoric and vigor assisted him in stating that war has already began, that now is the time to fight, and demonizing Great Britain as a brute, one of which has no respect for other people. Paine sets the groundwork for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution by attempting