The Rhetorical Analysis Of Thomas Paine
The Rhetorical Analysis of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man
Aleksandra Slijepcevic
Dr. Hahn, PRWR 611
December 14, 2011
Written in 1791, Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man was a literary attack on Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. Furthermore, it was a defense of the French Revolution. Thomas Paine believed that a political revolution was justified when and if a government failed to protect its people, their natural rights, and their national interests. In Paine’s opinion, this definition of a revolution—in other words, failure of a government to do its job—was the cause of the French Revolution, which Edmund Burke was strongly against. This opposition from Burke ignited the fuel for Rights of Man, which was craftily written and rhetorically bulletproofed. The witty and powerful rhetoric that Paine used in writing Rights of Man mark it an extraordinary piece of political prose style. John Adams wrote in 1805 that “I know not whether any man in the world has had more influence on its inhabitants or affairs for the last thirty years than Tom Paine.1” Even against a number of critics, Paine became a remarkable pamphleteer with not just Rights of Man, but with Common Sense, The Age of Reason, and Agrarian Justice. Indeed, Paine’s name and reputation had become synonymous with “the age of reason,” as he helped to create the language of politics. The French Revolution created a division, and ultimately a war, between tradition and innovation. Through the creation of a political language, Paine was able to create a vocabulary for people to use and understand that would help them express discontent for their government. This freedom of voice would, in turn, pave the road to a better life for all. On the contrary, Burke was in favor of tradition, which Paine believed was creating animosity and inequality between the French people—“the times that try men’s souls,” as Paine wrote in The Crisis.2 At the beginning of The Rights
Aleksandra Slijepcevic
Dr. Hahn, PRWR 611
December 14, 2011
Written in 1791, Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man was a literary attack on Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. Furthermore, it was a defense of the French Revolution. Thomas Paine believed that a political revolution was justified when and if a government failed to protect its people, their natural rights, and their national interests. In Paine’s opinion, this definition of a revolution—in other words, failure of a government to do its job—was the cause of the French Revolution, which Edmund Burke was strongly against. This opposition from Burke ignited the fuel for Rights of Man, which was craftily written and rhetorically bulletproofed. The witty and powerful rhetoric that Paine used in writing Rights of Man mark it an extraordinary piece of political prose style. John Adams wrote in 1805 that “I know not whether any man in the world has had more influence on its inhabitants or affairs for the last thirty years than Tom Paine.1” Even against a number of critics, Paine became a remarkable pamphleteer with not just Rights of Man, but with Common Sense, The Age of Reason, and Agrarian Justice. Indeed, Paine’s name and reputation had become synonymous with “the age of reason,” as he helped to create the language of politics. The French Revolution created a division, and ultimately a war, between tradition and innovation. Through the creation of a political language, Paine was able to create a vocabulary for people to use and understand that would help them express discontent for their government. This freedom of voice would, in turn, pave the road to a better life for all. On the contrary, Burke was in favor of tradition, which Paine believed was creating animosity and inequality between the French people—“the times that try men’s souls,” as Paine wrote in The Crisis.2 At the beginning of The Rights