“The Crisis”—Number 1

Thomas Paine

What would inspire you to fight for your country?

Background

Paine met Ben Franklin in London—they became friends and affected American history as a result. How so?

Common Sense : published in 1776 Americans must FIGHT for their own

independence Entitled The Crisis to inspire and increase

the morale among troops—what war? Argued: revolution is inevitable

Purpose

His main purpose was to inspire Americans into action. To Teach To Inform To Persuade To Entertain

What would inspire you to fight for your country? Paine’s words aroused passion

Positive Negative Good and bad, positive and negative, his

rhetoric made a difference. He used restatement, repetition,

parallelism and antithesis throughout his essay which we are going to look at here.

How is Parallelism used to persuade?

Explain your answer, OR ask me a question to help clarify.

Rhetoric devices

You have been assigned a group. Your task is to find at least 2 examples of the assigned rhetorical device and record them in your chart.

Then, with your group, decide what the purpos is of each use.

In your new group

Share and explain your responses. Add new ideas about purpose and explanations.

Rhetoric Device Example from text Purpose

Repetition

Restatement

Parallelism

Diction

Word choice! Purpose?

Charged Word

Words that arouse intense emotion and connotative concrete images.

Charged Words

Word Associations

Liberty

Justice

Honor

Barbarous

Aphorism

Brief pointed statement that reveals a wisdom of some kind

Ideas are like children; there are none so wonderful as your own.

AphorismsAphorism Meaning Purpose

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph

Through the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.

It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessings will reach you all.

How do charged words and aphorisms help persuade audiences?