Critical Analysis Of Thomas Paine's Common Sense

1. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense does not represent American opinion in early 1776 very well because it is unable to capture the diversity of opinion that lived in America with regard to this subject. Of course, Paine’s Common Sense was written in order to convince the American populace of the Patriotic cause. It is not an objective discussion of what was occurring and how people felt about what was occurring in 1776, and therefore, adequate and accurate representation regarding the opinons of the other side, the Loyalists, should not be expected. Nevertheless, this still makes Paine’s piece a poor representation of American opinion in early 1776 as a whole. There were Loyalists throughout American society and across various social classes (Foner 226); however, if one were to only read Paine’s piece in order to attempt to understand American sentiments during this time period, such a fact would be missed by them. This makes Common Sense a non-ideal piece to read in order to get a true, overarching understanding of American opinion n early 1776. …show more content…
Thomas Paine himself has no doubt as to the regards of whether the American movement for independence is necessary. He makes this clear through statements such as “the sun never shined on a cause of greater worth” (Paine 37). However, even amongst those who ultimately agreed with the American cause, they did not share the same certainty as Paine, especially not in early 1776. From pacifist religious groups who may have believed in the cause itself but refused to fight (Foner 226) to the wealthy who feared the revolution and its ideals may go too far (Foner 226), the opinions regarding independence are far greyer and more blurred than one may be able to decipher from Thomas Paine’s very certain Common