Thomas Paine Rhetorical Analysis

Aristotle came up with three appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos, all of which are found in all forms of writing, speeches, movies, television shows, and life within itself. Frederick Douglass used all three of these rhetoric devices in writing his narrative to tell about both his life as an American slave and his cause over ten decades ago. He uses these devices to identify himself to the readers, to bring emotion out of the readers, and to persuade the readers.

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 the years of the American Revolution, what made the colonists want to fight? The year was 1776 and the new colonies of America fought against the king of England to become free from his rule. The king was terrible ruler who had hurt the people of the new land far to many times. The people never wanted to fight, but one inspiring pamphlet written by Thomas Paine called,” The Crisis No.1” helped change the people's minds to want to fight. Paine used much emotional content, pathos, to connect with their emotion and rally the men.

In Aristotle’s book of collected lectures titled ‘Rhetoric’, Aristotle declares that there are three different ways to persuade a reader. The first way is to appeal to an audience by logical facts or logos. The second way is to appeal to a reader by using mortality or ethos into the writing. Lastly, Aristotle claims that you need emotion or ethos to persuade an audience. In Elizabeth I’s Speech to the troops at Tillbury and Frederick Douglass the Church and Prejudice: Both apply pathos in their speeches in order to gather their supporters behind them.

In Thomas Paine’s speech, “The Crisis, I” written during the retreat of Washington’s troops after a defeat in New Jersey, Paine’s intention was to inspire the troops to continue fighting for American independence from Britain. He adopts an inspirational tone to convey his thoughts to the American army through an appeal to religion, emotion and varying sentence structures.

Have you ever been through a situation that has hindered you to an extent of where you couldn’t find the right words to express how it made you feel or what happened in that specific event? If so, then you’re not alone. Survivors of the holocaust, a genocide that took place during World War II to systematically kill millions of Jews, have too had a difficult time expressing the horrific period of their life after they were taken from the comfort of their homes and sent to concentration camps. Elie Wiesel, a main character in the novel Night, was a survivor and one of those people who didn’t know what words to use in terms of telling his experiences in the captivity. As a result, Wiesel found other techniques to use, which includes using words as symbols, repetition and explaining how the original meaning of a word is sometimes not enough to thoroughly tell the full story.

Imagine a world where there is no technology, air condition, airplanes, and the only way to travel is by ship. You would pray for safe travels, but there was no certainty to whether you would live to see the next day because the ocean could be unpredictable. All you had were friends and family, the ocean, and a hope for a better future. In the early 1600s, this is exactly what the pilgrims faced as they crossed the Atlantic Ocean to reach their destination in the Americas. They left Great Britain for religious freedom and trusted that God would protect them. When the pilgrims, reached the new land they began to colonize. As time passed, their dependence on God began to fade. This is one of the reasons that caused the Great Awakening.

1. Describe the tone Thoreau establishes in paragraph 2. How does it contribute to the rhetorical effect of the paragraph?

In a time of uncertainty and alliances Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, Common Sense provided the American people an easy way to understand the breakdown of who they were going to go to war against and why they should. Paine offered opinions with intellectual backing, opinions that were soon backed or opposed by other colonists and debated from taverns to law offices all over the colonies. In this paper, I will be discussing Paine’s intended audience, his perspective, the major problems he sees between England and the American colonies, and why his writing was so persuasive to support the revolution and weaknesses in his argument.

Being an American today can mean different things to different people but for me it means to have respect for religion and hope for better days through better ways.Thomas Paine and William Bradford give examples of how they modeled america to be the way it is today. The two passages I am going to be quoting are going to be “The Crisis” by Thomas Paine and “Of Plymouth Plantation” by William Bradford.

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

Thomas Paine was born to Joseph Paine and Francis Cocke Paine in January, 1737. Paine’s father was Quaker, and his mother was Anglican. The religious controversies haunted Paine throughout his life. His personal life ended in divorce and destitution. After barely avoiding debtor’s prison in 1774, a mutual friend introduced Paine to Benjamin. This introduction would change the course of Paine’s life. Franklin was immediately impressed with Paine and wrote a letter of introduction for him. Paine suffered physical illness on his journey that very nearly killed him, but he managed to survive the trip and arrived in Philadelphia September of 1774.

Political writer, Thomas Paine, in his persuasive writing, The Crisis No. 1, expresses feelings towards Britain's control over the colonies. Paine's purpose is to unite the colonists in an effort to retaliate against Great Britain. He uses an objective tone in order to unite and rally the common person in his nation.

People today remember the Enlightenment and Age of Reason for creating the Saturnalia of creative, civil epiphanies. As new and old mindsets interact, rather in context than exploding into action all at once, certain is friction, but uncertain is whom would give. Such a prominent example is in America, where a weakened continent longed for the leeway unaccustomed to a stout, trans-Oceanic, island. If the quill is mightier than the sword, how one uses it must figure the hit's criticality. Some argue for Henry’s ethos as the most influential of the times, for calling the Virginia Convention to an independence crusade. Others defend Paine’s pathos, for bidding patriots to combat. Jefferson’s logos supersedes both, with a need to show the “crowning” opponent the truth of the colonies’ plea. In Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, logos’ technique projecting all the influence manifests through parallelism, restatement, and repetition.

The government is preventing society from thriving and, from becoming what we’re capable of being. The government has not only been controlling society but also limiting us to what they feel is correct or necessary. Some may agree: however; some may disagree on how I perceive the government. “Society in every state is a blessing, but the government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in it’s worst state, an intolerable one.” -Thomas Paine. Paine is showing us that the government is necessary for humanity but also destructive to society. He views this because the government can take charge and control everything if they wanted to. But with the government doing so society cannot be free and flourish into something that can create so much good. He also knows that if you don't have enough restraints on society the people within will act chaotic and things will get out of hand, but there will be no rules to control it. I agree with Paine about the destructiveness to society, however, I disagree how Paine believes that government is a necessary evil. I believe that the government needs to only govern our basic rights and command the military.