Common Sense November 1776 Thomas Paine Analysis

Thomas Paine claims in Common Sense that the people living in America do not need to tolerate the oppression from their British overlords. His main purpose for writing this pamphlet was to expose the injustice of the British towards the Americans and to persuade those who still believed that the British were either needed or were beneficial for the Americans in 1776. Paine values the idea that the Americans need to revolt against their evil ,oppressive, monarchical rulers in Britain and to establish pure democracy in the Thirteen Colonies. Paine writes from the perspective of an equal to his fellow American man, thus making him relatable from common folk to the wealthy merchants and upper classes. Paine shows the British tyranny over America as horrific and he wishes to expose British faults and impurities to inspire the colonists

Thomas Paine was a great influence before and during the American revolution, two specific events that were stepping stones to the Revolution were also stepping stones for Paine’s work. The Stamp Act and The Enlightenment helped Paine to realize the need for revolution, with those events as influences he argued many points, including Naval occupation, need of debt and non-reconciliation with the British, on why the revolution is needed. Paine arrived in The British colonies in Seventeen Seventy-Four and started his literary career writing pamphlets and sharing his ideas with the public. Paine showed passion in revealing what he thought to be the public with his writing and opinions. That passion lead him to be in the center of the Revolutionary war.

While contending that Britain does not consist of a trustworthy government, when it comes to the colonies rights and justice they receive. There have been multiple instances in which the British imposed unright taxes upon the American colonies, even after they were repealed. “Until an independence is declared the continent will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant business from day to day, yet knows it must be done” (Paine 44). The main point of Paine is that the Americans should secede from Britain. And in order to do so, the colonists must act soon. And he enforces a call to action by the American colonists in their independence from

1. Thomas Paine was nothing but an English craftsman who had emigrated to Philadelphia. He was a minor government official as well. Thomas Jefferson was born in America and like Americans in his time, he believed that Britain had a corrupted constitution. Paine soon finds himself joining the advocates where ideas were being created. From there, Paine was influenced to write the pamphlet called, "Common Sense." Both individuals promoted American Independence and made ideas plain to American colonists. Thomas Paine's advantage was the fact that he wasn't raised under Great Britain's Constitution, that gave him ideas and questions to why is America still under British control considering the fact that there are angry Americans.

In Paine’s argument for independence, he says people seem to think that America prospered under Great Brittan. However, Paine thinks the colonists would have been better off if no European power had been a part of America. America bragged about how great Brittan had protected them, and they seemed to never realize that Great Brittan was just using them for their own benefit. Some colonists make excuses, saying that Great Brittan is

The book “Common Sense” written by Thomas Paine in 1776, and the Declaration of Independence were both documents written to address our Colonial disputes with England. Common Sense examines how Americans defended the right to resist unjust laws, and how this right of resistance was transformed into a right of revolution. It examines Thomas Paine’s views on the difference between society and government. The Declaration of Independence has great significance to the colonial population because it justified our right to revolt against a government that no longer guaranteed us our natural rights. The Declaration of Independence also helped us to get increased foreign assistance from France in our fight to become free from England. With this information

Thomas Paine argued for the need for the independence of the American colonies from Great Britain. In the beginning, he wrote about general theories of government, focusing then on the specific situation in the colonies

Expressing Paine’s views that a revolution was inevitable due to a number of insurmountable problems, written in a way that his audience, everyday colonial Americans, could understand. He expresses his ultimate view that “The authority of Great Britain over this continent is a form of government which sooner or later must have and end (Paine 25)” and that end is

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 his writing, Paine acknowledges that, “Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between England and America.” (Paine, 683) He further states that these writings had proven

Paine rejected the traditional ideas of government and had a vision for a future society that transcended the minds of the known world. He advocated independence from Great Britain and played a major impact in jump starting the American Revolution by elucidating the impracticalities of aristocratic hierarchy, established religion, and social injustice. However, Paine was more than just a wishful thinker. Thomas Paine was a utopian and promotes his utopian vision in his political writings in order to try and establish a possible future which is for the common good of humanity.

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

It claims all monarchs are despots, cut off from their people and craving for absolute power.  “Male and female are the distinctions of nature,” Paine wrote, “good and bad the distinctions of heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest . . . is worth enquiring into” (Paine 9).  Government is a necessary evil, a “badge of lost innocence,” that tends to get in the way of civilized society.  Modern civilizations should organize themselves into local, self-governing societies with only representational government, suggested Paine, not an all-powerful monarch. “Of more worth is one honest man to society, and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived” (Paine 17).

Thomas Paine expresses his feelings toward the English constitution and its flaws specifically the crown. According to Paine, "because the

One of the most fundamental people in the push for American Independence, Thomas Paine offers much advice in both Common Sense, and The Crisis. Paine offers very strong arguments in Common Sense, which are supported by his own reason, his sensibility, his common sense and by his ability to draw inference from what has already happened. Paine uses every element in his ability to help give more depth to his arguments and plans. However, of all the cases Thomas Paine makes in Common Sense, the ultimate goal of Paine is to incite the American Public to make a stand against British tyranny, and break from Britain altogether, and become independent.