The Diction And Figurative Language In The Revolutionary War By Thomas Paine

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Thomas Paine describes the conflict as American citizens debating whether or not they are going to fight in the American Revolutionary War. Those who do make the decision to fight are being considered as gallant and brave, while those who are not are considered cowards and weak. The diction and figurative language being used in the essay gives us an explanation and more descriptive passage of the emotions people have toward the decisions of other who have chose to fight or not fight in the war. The initial word choices Thomas Paine uses in The Crisis makes it easy to figure out what the conflict is from the beginning. Paine believes the nature of men to have two roles in life, forces the audience to choose a side in the conflict. The first sentence: “These are the times that try men’s souls,” creates the idea of this crisis not only in a direct manner but also in a short sentence. Paine implies that those who do not want to fight, the “summer soldier and the sunshine patriot,”because they are cowards in which Paine also applies the word coward to the Tories saying,”Every …show more content…

For example, Paine compares tyranny to hell stating, “Tyranny like hell, is not easily conquered.” Meaning the fight will not be easily fought. Throughout the essay, Paine also uses personification to explain how “America will never be happy,” as to America is a person itself who can show feelings when really America is a place but has people in it that can show emotion. There are also more similes throughout the essay where Britain’s tremble is “like an arue at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boat.” or where France was driven back “like men petrified with fear.” Parallelism is also used where the essay mentions a “common murderer, a highwayman, or a house-breaker,” describing the men being evil and how the king of Britain should be in fear of what could or will happen in the