The Writing Strategies of Thomas Paine's "Common Sense"

In Thomas Paine’s writing entitled “Common Sense,” Paine utilizes many rationalistic strategies to support his points and ideals. He uses many relations to the past government in Great Britain support his thoughts on the extreme corruption of the British government. Another wise strategy is summarized in the beginning of the article when he states, “In the following sheets, the author hath studiously avoided every thing which is personal among ourselves” (Paine). To keep his arguments valid and unbiased, he knows he must keep his personal opinions away and strictly honor the facts and rationalist reasoning. Paine’s use of referring to the Bible also serves to be a constructive writing strategy. Paine uses a multitude of effective writing strategies to prove his points dealing with the corruption of the eighteenth century British government.

To prove one of his main points about the corruption of Britain’s monarchal government and monarchy in general, Paine uses historical facts. Although he does not refer to specific kings or instances in the past, Paine makes his views clear throughout by saying such things as, “There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required” (Paine). He feels as if the complete idea of a monarchy is ridiculous, and he conveys it by using truthful ideals. In addition, Paine puts his statements, such as the previous selected quote, in quite simple terms. However, these statements many times prove a larger point.

Paine’s reference to the Bible is indeed effective, but in a way, it contradicts his Rationalistic views. Rationalistic beliefs almost view the Bible as obsolete, and it should not necessarily be used as a frame of reference. However, Paine does stick to his Rationalistic beliefs in a way because he says nothing about religion itself; he just uses the story as if it were written in any form. Paine’s reference to the Bible states, “She would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion” (Paine). It is subtle, but it is a loaded statement. Paine of course is referring to the “folly of hereditary right in kings” (Paine). Throughout this section of his writing, Paine expresses that the heredity of a person does not, or should not rather, impact said person’s governmental authority, or authority to rule. His use of metaphor from the Bible serves as a useful degrading of the British king.

Thomas Paine’s writing brings up a multitude of ideals dealing with the current state of the British colonies in America from a colonist’s viewpoint. He discusses the tremendous flaws and corruption of the British monarchal system and how it directly affects their rule over the American colonies. Paine uses numerous effective writing strategies such as referring to the Bible and using facts from recent history to support his claims (Paine). Although a few of these allusions are put into simpler and more direct, they serve their purpose of presenting valid arguments. Paine’s Rationalistic views are easily seen because of his logic and drawn out approaches to his thoughts. In my opinion, the techniques and writing strategies employed by Paine bring more meaning and reason to his writing.

Bibliography

Paine, Thomas. "Thomas Paine's Common Sense - Text Version." Archiving Early America: Primary Source Material from 18th Century America. Archiving Early America. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. < http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/commonsense/text.html>.