Common sense
by Thomas Paine (part 1)
Analyzing Rhetorical Devices
Common sense (part 1)
Quote
Rhetorical Devices
Paraphrase
Analysis
“Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.”
Juxtaposition
Society is good because it encourages us to work together, but government is bad because it divides us and punishes us.
Thomas Paine uses juxtaposition when he compares society and government in order to make government, in this case the British monarchy, seem evil, and society, in this case the American colonies, seem good. Thomas Paine’s juxtaposition is intended to encourage the Colonists to rebel against Great Britain.
Common sense (part 1)
Quote
Rhetorical Devices
Paraphrase
Analysis
“Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise.”
Simile
and
Allusion
Government is only necessary because human beings are imperfect creatures.
Thomas Paine uses simile when he compares government to “dress” or clothing. In the same way that Adam and Eve only needed clothes after they sinned by eating from the tree of knowledge, people only need government because they are sinners and society needs government to punish people from time to time. The quote is also a biblical allusion to the story of Adam and Eve who were kicked out of paradise after they ate from the tree of knowledge.
Common sense (part 1)
Quote
Rhetorical Devices
Paraphrase
Analysis
“Let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest; they will then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world... Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world”
Inductive Reasoning
and
Anecdote
People in nature will naturally form a society, which benefits everybody. But as a society gets bigger, people start to do wrong and commit crimes, which causes the people to form government. Then, as government gets bigger, it becomes more complex and more corrupt.
Thomas Paine uses inductive reasoning when he uses a hypothetical anecdote to make a very general statement about how government always becomes corrupt. Thomas Paine hopes to convince the reader that the British government has, like the government in his anecdote, become big and corrupt and should therefore be overthrown.
Common sense (part 1)
Quote
Rhetorical Devices
Paraphrase
Analysis
“if we will suffer ourselves to examine the component parts of the English Constitution, we shall find them to be the base remains of two ancient tyrannies, compounded with some new Republican materials.
First. — The remains of Monarchical tyranny in the person of the King.
Secondly. — The remains of Aristocratical tyranny in the persons of the Peers.”
Connot-ation
and
Repetition
If you look carefully at the English Constitution, you will see that it is bad.
Thomas Paine uses the connotative words “ancient” and “remains” (which he repeats 3 times) in order to imply that the English Constitution is old, outdated, and needs to be changed. The words “remains” implies that the English Constitution is dead and a new one must be created in its place. Thomas Paine hopes to convince the readers that the Colonists can create a better constitution, a better government, than the one England currently has.