The Crisis, No. 1
Thomas Paine
Literary Analysis

Persuasion
Writing meant to convince readers to think
or act in a certain way.
 It appeals to the emotions or reason, offers
opinions, and urges action.
 To be effective, it must also be supported
with evidence.

Literary Terms

Charged words
They are likely to produce a strong
emotional response.
 To avoid being swayed by charged words,
look for support to back up the words.

About the Selection
Paine’s rhetoric, designed to build
morale among the soldiers, promises
that the severity of their situation makes
triumph more glorious.
 He also vows that God would never
desert those who fight for just causes.
 He criticizes Tories for being shortsighted because he believes revolution
to be inevitable.

About the Selection
Paine praises those who stand fast in
their opposition to England and calls on
all the states to put forth their best efforts
to resist English rule.
 He labels those who step aside as evil,
cold-hearted, cowardly, and unprincipled
and concludes with an extended
metaphor comparing the British to
thieves who must be punished.

Latin root –fidComes from the Latin word fides, which
means “faith.”
 “Neither have I so much of the infidel in
me, as to suppose he has relinquished
the government of the world…”
 Paine uses the word infidel to mean
specifically “one who is unfaithful to his
religion.”

Charged Words
In what ways might the word “foreign”
(p. 133) help Paine inspire the colonists
to fight against Great Britain?
 With it, Paine casts the British as
outsiders, when in fact most colonists
were of British stock. Paine appeals to
the colonists’ sense of themselves as an
emerging nation.

Charged Words

Casting Great Britain as a foreign power
rather than as the colonists’ legal
government helps colonists to avoid any
sense of disloyalty.
Recalling Details
Whom does Paine call to arms?
 He calls on every colonist in every state
to help with this important cause.

Recalling Details
In the third paragraph, what terms does
Paine use to describe the British king?
 He says the king is a bad as a common
murderer, a highwayman, or a burglar.
 Is this description realistic?
 It is exaggerated for effect.

Reliable Speaker
Is Paine trustworthy as a reporter of
historical events? Why?
 Paine does convey the emotional
immediacy of events; however, Paine is
too committed to one side to give a
balanced account.

Recalling Details
In the first paragraph, with what ideas
does the author justify the struggle of
revolution?
 He says that the harder a goal is to
achieve, the more worthy it is and that
Britain’s colonial policy amounts to
slavery.

Analysis
What does Paine mean when he refers
to “the summer soldier” and “the
sunshine patriot”?
 He refers to people who are only
available when times are easy and who
desert the cause in bleak, harsh, and
difficult circumstances.

Emotional Appeal
What two emotions does Paine appeal to
in this selection?
 Resentment and anger
 Does Paine appeal more to emotion or
reason in this essay?
 He appeals more to emotions. He uses
charged words such as crisis, tyranny,
hell, heaven, freedom, and slavery.

Main Idea/ Theme
What is the main idea of this essay?
 The colonists are fighting a just cause;
thus, they should endure the difficult
times and not lose sight of their purpose.

Persuasive Techniques
What persuasive techniques does Paine
use to develop his main idea?
 He cites oppressive British policy.
 He suggests that separation from Great
Britain is inevitable and should be
resolved now.

Persuasive Techniques

Paine’s vivid descriptions of the
American predicament and his
comparisons between British behavior
and the actions of common criminals
make his argument strong.
Anecdotal Evidence

“… a noted one, who kept a tavern at
Amboy, was standing at his door, with as
pretty a child in his hand, about eight or
nine years old, as I ever saw, and after
speaking his mind as freely as he
thought prudent, finished with this
unfatherly expression, ‘Well! Give me
peace in my day.’”