Similes In Sinners

In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," by Jonathan Edwards, he utilizes similes, imagery, and repetitions to persuade his audience. The main purpose of his sermon reveals that he tries to make the experience of the devil and hell so real and frightening that people in the audience would change their lives. However, when he apply these types of rhetorical devices, he reveals a better understanding of what he says during his sermon. The usage of similes in his sermon, makes the audience have a stronger view of the events he is comparing. He says,“Have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling." Seeing that, he compares the sinners to a spider's web. He employs this device to dramatize human powerlessness. In other words, people who think can escape hell on their own have a little chance of doing so as a spider's web has of stopping the fallen rock.

Edwards says,“...the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, their flames gather and flash about them..." This establishes a place of horror and frightens the people in the audience. The words devil, hell, flames, and flash exemplify a world of misery that no one would want to live. More importantly, it makes the experience of hell so realistic and effective that people would want to change decisions on what to believe on. Furthermore, he creates an effectual and coherent view to the audience, using repetition. He states,“ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil..." With this, his usage of words, makes the audience seem more focus on what he truly says of the devil. How this persuades his audience is by bonding similar words together, in order for the audience to have a visualization, that if you could face and have more strength than the devil, he is possibly more