Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense Analysis Early American History is filled with influential figures that helped our country become the nation we are today. You hear about all the famous Americans like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin growing up in grade school, and how they helped in our drive for independence. There also is however many people who’s importance to our revolution are not as celebrated. One of these men is Thomas Paine, who wrote Common Sense, a pamphlet anonymously submitted in 1776 that emphasized the need for Americans to become independent from England“[resulted] in the first successful ant colonial action in modern history” (Earlyamerica.com). By analyzing his writing we see how his writing techniques capture the audience in a way that very few people had done before. In the Introduction to common sense, Paine gets straight to the point about what he wants to talk about, conveys his “immediate understanding about [his] feelings towards the rule of Great Britain over the States” (Sudymode.com) and the “violent abuse of power” (Paine) that they have placed upon the colonials. By the clever use of diction, he calls the people “sufferers” and “grievously oppressed” to gain their sentiments toward what he feels is important, the natural rights of men. He also uses an allusion “a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right” (Paine), in order to make the public see the tyranny they are dealing with. The audience that he writes to not only understand what suffering is they understand that they should not have to put up with this kind of treatment. The whole introduction was brilliantly planned out by Paine because he does not try and beat around the bush or use complicated words or phrases; if he had common people would not understand what he was saying right away. In the section Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs, Paine repeatedly says how America should be