preview

Thomas Paine Rhetorical Analysis

Decent Essays

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 …show more content…

The king’s attitude towards the rights of man and ultimate fate of the colonists is one of complete and utter disregard. He refers to the “many material injuries which these colonies sustain, and will always sustain” by remaining under the power of the king of England (336). The heavy imposition of taxes on the colonies and complete disregard of colonial feelings proves how Paine describes Britain’s view of America as a limited one, one that only considers how America can serve England’s “purposes” (342). Paine hopes to instill the same feeling in the colonists that the king of England can never compensate for “the expense of blood and treasure we have been already put to” (341). By using rather derogatory terms to describe America, Paine hopes to give the reader the sense that Britain is far more concerned with money and resources rather than who the colonists are as human beings. His discourse portrays the king of England as an animal, and implied that he only exists to steal the resources that the colonies produce. “Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families” which is how Paine feels Britain had chosen to do in America (336). Paine continues to persuade the colonists that the only leader of America shall be God, who shines his light upon those seeking independence. Thomas Paine, in Common Sense, reduces England to beast, one of which shall be cut off from

Get Access