Rhetorical Analysis Of Crisis No. 1

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Crisis No. 1 “These are the times that try men’s soul”(pg. 108). Most people today in America are clueless as to where this quote is from but Colonists from the revolution used this speech as motivation to gain independence from Great Britain, The quote was the opening statement to Thomas Paine’s Crisis No. 1. During the colonial time period America was starting to get angered for the taxes imposed on them by the military giant Great Britain. Writers in this time period used text to convey their motives and to persuade people to join the cause for the fight against Britain to become a fully independent nation. Thomas Paine’s Crisis No. 1 utilizes the art of rhetoric more efficiently than Patrick Henry’s The Virginia Convention Speech mainly by using Pathos or emotion to get into the minds of the colonists at the time. Crisis No. 1 uses Pathos or emotion to gift colonists motivation to fight the british more than The Virginia Convention. “If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace”(pg. 109) was said by Thomas Paine when delivering an anecdote in this particular part of the speech. This particular quote is the most emotionally powerful in the entirety of the speech as it uses the love of the listeners children to be transitioned into their feelings toward the fight for independence. It was effective because it caused more Colonists to realize that change was needed now and not to be …show more content…

1 uses Pathos in a more efficient way than the Virginia Convention to persuade colonists to join the fight for independence. Paine accomplishes this by affecting the feelings felt towards the listeners kin to be also felt towards the revolution and by exposing the British as doing worse than just maintaining peace. “And if there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it not, let him suffer if unlamented”(pg. 111) is the closing statement in Crisis No. 1 to leave the colonists off with the mindset that whoever is not with us is against

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