Question

In at least 100 words, describe how Thomas Paine uses personification as a rhetorical technique in the American crisis. Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

Answer 1

In Thomas Paine's pamphlet titled The American Crisis, he makes use of many types of figurative language, but in particular, he uses personification as a rhetorical technique. First and foremost, Thomas Paine personifies America as a whole by referring to the nation with the pronouns "she" and "her," suggesting that America is feminine or a woman. This is done intentionally on the part of Thomas Paine so that he may further his message that America is one nation; therefore, the people of the nation should stand and fight together for one single cause. By suggesting that America is a woman, or rather, one single person, Paine's audience will recognize that America is not just each colony divided; it is one nation under liberty.

Step-by-step explanation:

Please answer in your own words :)

Answer 2

Thomas Paine personifies America as a woman, by referring to the nation as "her, she" etc.

Step-by-step explanation:

Personification is the giving of human or living attributes to non-living things or abstract ideas. In other words, when non-human things are given human characteristics, it is not as personification.

Thomas Paine uses numerous rhetorical devices in his "American Crisis", one of which is personification. He personifies America as a woman, a lady in his statement "America did not, nor does not want force; but she wanted a proper application of that force." (The Crisis I)

He again uses this same personification in chapter II, "Perhaps you thought America too was taking a nap, and therefore chose, like Satan to Eve, to whisper the delusion softly, lest you should awaken her."

Such personifications help imagine the country as a person, and easy to relate to the issues troubling the great nation.