Rhetorical Analysis On Thomas Paine

In his piece, Thomas Paine strongly expresses a persuasive outlook as to why the colonists should fight for their independence. He believes that their willing right to be free shall not be put aside and that their abilities to achieve their freedom may be affected by factors such as God, the British, or even just simply the fact that Paine described the reasoning to get the colonists to fight in such an expressive way. Throughout this piece, Paine’s goal was to persuade the colonists to strive for liberty. To support his argument, Paine utilizes religious beliefs, descriptive language, and the recognition of the counter argument. To begin with, the author points to religious beliefs to demonstrate the relation God has on the colonists …show more content…
He shares that “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph” (Paine 44). Thomas wanted to explain how the prize is much bigger than the fight. Although the fight may be dangerous, deadly, or difficult, the reward they will get will be more satisfying and have a greater effect in the end. He persuaded them by trying to get them to see further in the future and past the hard times. Paine had used imagery, trying to describe the win they will reward if they fight. He attempted to have the colonists imagine the situation and see how much more they’d get out of it after the struggles and obstacles. Paine also states “Not all the treasures of the world...could have induced me to support an offensive war...what signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king...an individual villain...an army of them...we shall find no difference, why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other” (Paine 46). He used descriptive words such as offensive, threaten, villain, punish, etc. to add more strength to his points and with descriptive words, it helps persuade the colonists to fight and do what they need to do to achieve freedom. These words help his persuasion because the colonists see words such as war and connect it to villain or army, and realize there is no bad …show more content…
He exemplifies in the text “I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a proper use of last winter..” (Paine 44). The colonists were to blame for not acting for a very long time. They had waisted too much time sitting down and not solving anything. They didn’t win anything during their time of isolation and independence. Due to their lack of wins throughout this time period, Thomas had persuaded the colonists to fight to gain back their losses. He recognized the other side, Britain, by pointing out how the colonists let the British overthrow their power to get up and do something during the winter. They sat there and watched the British take control, but as he recognizes that, he also shows the colonists why they can’t let that happen again. They can’t let Britain take control. He also shares everyone experiences fear and panic, even when the British had became frightened from the French’s fleet. This fear has driven these men to become petrified and put their bravery on reserve (Paine 45). The fear that immensely spread, had gone through not only the British, but rather the English Army. War caused these soldiers great fear and Thomas persuaded the colonists to fight because he showed how all nations were frightened by war. They didn’t continue their bravery, they became scared. His