Daniel Lee
Parks
AP English- 2
18 November 2014 The Revolutionary Period In Class Essay After the War of 1812, the British thought that the Americans should help pay for the money lost from the war. Taxes, beginning with the Stamp Act of 1765, were imposed on the Americans. This started conflicts between the British and the Americans which lead to the American Revolutionary Period. Authors, such as Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson, showed their displeasure of the British through literature. Their writings influenced and convinced the people to revolt against England through use of literary and argumentative devices. To make their writings more effective, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson all use literary …show more content…
He asks. “I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission?” (Henry). He asks the audience what the English military doing on American land other than to make the Colonies tap out or give up to the British. These type of questions stirred the emotions of the audience and made them want to revolt against English, which was Henry’s ultimate goal of the speech. When the emotions are high towards the end of his speech he also adds, “Why stand we here idle?” (Henry). He dots the exclamation point on his speech with this rhetorical question that evokes a sense of urgency to start the revolution. Similarly, Thomas Paine used rhetorical questions to arouse the audience into action. “Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to this absolute will, am I to suffer it?” (Paine). He uses an analogy before his rhetorical question that makes his view point more effective. The thief represents the king and England coming to take everything the colonists had. Paine asks if the victims were to take in the abuse of …show more content…
After establish logical reasons why colonists should gain independence, Jefferson list multiple reasons that the king has given them to revolt against him. He starts with, “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them,” (Jefferson) and continues until switching to the repetition of the word for. This long list of reasons that repeats the same word over and over emphasizes that the lists continues and is almost never ending. Patrick Henry similarly uses repetition in his speech to support the idea and points the audience should focus on. “If we wish to be free — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained — we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!” (Henry). His repetition of the words “if we” shows that the
Parks
AP English- 2
18 November 2014 The Revolutionary Period In Class Essay After the War of 1812, the British thought that the Americans should help pay for the money lost from the war. Taxes, beginning with the Stamp Act of 1765, were imposed on the Americans. This started conflicts between the British and the Americans which lead to the American Revolutionary Period. Authors, such as Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson, showed their displeasure of the British through literature. Their writings influenced and convinced the people to revolt against England through use of literary and argumentative devices. To make their writings more effective, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson all use literary …show more content…
He asks. “I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission?” (Henry). He asks the audience what the English military doing on American land other than to make the Colonies tap out or give up to the British. These type of questions stirred the emotions of the audience and made them want to revolt against English, which was Henry’s ultimate goal of the speech. When the emotions are high towards the end of his speech he also adds, “Why stand we here idle?” (Henry). He dots the exclamation point on his speech with this rhetorical question that evokes a sense of urgency to start the revolution. Similarly, Thomas Paine used rhetorical questions to arouse the audience into action. “Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to this absolute will, am I to suffer it?” (Paine). He uses an analogy before his rhetorical question that makes his view point more effective. The thief represents the king and England coming to take everything the colonists had. Paine asks if the victims were to take in the abuse of …show more content…
After establish logical reasons why colonists should gain independence, Jefferson list multiple reasons that the king has given them to revolt against him. He starts with, “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them,” (Jefferson) and continues until switching to the repetition of the word for. This long list of reasons that repeats the same word over and over emphasizes that the lists continues and is almost never ending. Patrick Henry similarly uses repetition in his speech to support the idea and points the audience should focus on. “If we wish to be free — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained — we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!” (Henry). His repetition of the words “if we” shows that the