In "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards, he uses similes, metaphors, and personification to create a persuasive speech. Edwards uses a simile to compare God's wrath and great waters. "The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present..." In the quote, the wrath of God is being compared to great waters in a dam. Once it is released it is hard to control. It is strong and can be caused by any mistake. Metaphors are used in the speech to compare hell to brimstone. "That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone..." The world of misery is hell and it is comparing that world's lake to burning brimstone, if you step in you'll die. He is saying that if you are a sinner you are going to hell and
Jonathan Edwards uses analogies and imagery to persuade people into becoming a puritan back then in the 1800's. In the sermon "sinners in the hands of an angry God" there are many examples of analogies and imagery in the brimstone to describe sinners that give in to temptation and followeres that stay on the righteous path.
He commonly uses expressions such as, “They increase more and more, and rise higher and higher”(Edwards). He uses this parallel structure for the exact same reason people use it in everyday conversation, to exaggerate what is being said. Edwards is trying to give his audience not only a reason, but a real fear of not living perfect lives. His use of parallel structure makes the audience use their imagination while thinking of God's wrath, and once they imagine their own version of hell, which would already terrify them, Edwards pushes their imagination even further and more disturbing. The imagery he creates causes the audience to believe that God's wrath will be even more atrocious than one could
Jonathon Edwards maintains his audience’s attention by creating intense and meaningful similes. Edwards uses these similes as a way for his audience to understand the points he is making and adds dramatic imagery and piercing words to get the audience to consider what he is saying. The first simile he uses says this, “…they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall” (Edwards 1). Edwards includes this quote in his sermon to provoke the readers thought. The point he is trying to make is that God’s people are exposed to destruction which is a hard to imagine so he breaks it down for his audience by saying that just as they are exposed to destruction if you walk in a slippery place you will also fall. The next memorable simile Edwards uses says this, “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire…” (6). Here Edwards compares his congregation to a “loathsome insect”. Edwards does this to try and describe how God views them. He continues his claim by comparing God’s wrath on them burning like fire, which would probably spark fear in the hearts of the people that they may repent. This simile helped further Edward’s main point, that hell is inevitable. One last simile Edwards uses is this, “Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards
Just as effective as language manipulation is Edwards's use of language transformation; indeed, his skillful employment of descriptive language adds a visual dimension to his message. Even if the foundation is misinterpreted, these transformations allow any listener to mentally "see" Edwards's overall direction. For instance, God's wrath is referred to as "great waters that are dammed", "a glittering sword", and a "drawn arrow". These terms indicate powerful and deadly forces. On the other hand, sinners are likened to "worms of the dust", "miserable creatures", and "loathsome insects"; consequently, these labels are receptors of God's wrath through the forces Edwards introduces. Although these conceptual images appear basic, Edwards's frequency and placement throughout his delivery produce a clear and precise overview to even
In this work he uses hell to scare people into believing that if you do something wrong that you will go to hell. This scared the people because most people didn't know better and they really thought hat was a place below the surface of the earth where one wold go spend eternity in a fire pit. He was saying that if you believe and repent you will be saved, but if not then you will burn.
Edwards’s uses strong, powerful diction to clearly get his across to the spectators. Jonathan Edwards repetitively uses the word “omnipotent” to visibly tell his audience how powerful God is. Along with that, he repetitively uses the phrase “God’s wrath” along with words such as “fury, despair and destruction”. Edwards actually describes God’s wrath by commonly using words as dreadful, glowing, wickedness, black and vengeance. By the usage of these words and phrases, Edwards indicates that God is angered and furious of our actions. However to point out God’s generosity, Jonathan Edwards commonly uses the word “mercy”. By using the word “mercy”, Edwards indicates that since God made his worshipers, he is giving them an opportunity to repent and amend their ways or destruction is unpreventable. Mr. Edwards also uses words as “mourn, howl, hopeless and sober,” to specify the listeners reactions upon hearing Edwards’s sermon. Edwards use of influential words leave the spectators mourning and groaning in great despair. Edwards employs all these words through the emotional appeal of ethos. This is what causes a great impact upon the listeners at the church.
Edwards use of metaphors allows his tone to be straightforward with their negative connotations. He compares God’s wrath to the great waters that are damned to the present. By incorporating that the waters are for them and the longer it is held the faster and mighty it is, he makes readers feel guilty for being sinful. Depite managing to comfort them by reminding them they have not yet been judged he changes his tone to criticize it is their
Within the eighteenth century, Christians were going through the Great Awakening, a wave of religious enthusiasm that swept through the colonies in an effort to make an impact on the religion within the areas. In the sermon written by Jonathon Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” he is trying to persuade nonbelievers into joining his religion in a way unused by many. To show nonbelievers the two altering sides of God based on what people believe and “they may imagine him to be so” (3), Jonathon Edwards’ sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” utilizes threatening tone, conveying repetition, and augmenting similes to express the fury and hopefulness of God.
Therefore, in the sermon edward continues in saying, "...there is hell's wide gaping mouth open..." meaning there are two sides in life "God's wrath" or "fiery pit of hell" and
The fear of eternal damnation turns people against one another when in life-threatening trials. God’s wrath is being contained upon them as these test occur. In “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God” and “The Crucible”, Edwards and Miller use metaphors, imagery, symbolism, and allegory to display how they unveil their message with fear and persuasion.
“I’m a devil worshiper” is the very first line as Fetty Wap begins rapping in his song, “679.” In a way, this statement is very similar to Jonathan Edwards writings because both speakers had very unconventional views for their respective times. In today's world, Fetty Wap’s satanic beliefs aren’t generally accepted by other people; this is similar to Edwards views because he opposed the stereotypical loving image of God by warning others of his potential destruction and power. In, “Sinners of the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards makes it clearly known that he portrays God as dangerous and unafraid to take violent action through the use of imagery in nature by water, wind and insects.
Fear is something that is sometimes used in order to manipulate people and in this case fear is being used in order to convince people into becoming religious or into becoming a better person. For example, “... Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fine of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much as against you, as against many of damned in hell”(Edward, para, 90). The author warns the sinners that they should be aware of the sins they have committed. He gives a description of how god has the sinners hanging from hell in order to put fear into the reader. By doing so it scares the reader and might convince them into either becoming a better person or becoming religious. The author easily manipulates the reader by warning the reader of what's going to happen if they don’t change. He also tries to use this as a way to convert them into religion. Edward exhibits a strong use of persuasion to try and get people to either believe or change into better people. Everyone is in danger of going to hell but, it's up to them to decide whether they're going to change. One way to change or manipulate them is by using fear.
Early American text communicated diverse views of human nature through the use of rhetorical strategies such as similes, metaphors, parallelism, repetition, imagery, and rhetorical questions. The various actions and speeches, showed how the early Americans saw humans as wicked and evil. Others saw humans as good and righteous. In the sermon “from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards, the autobiography “from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” by Olaudah Equiano, and the speech “Speech to the Virginia Convention” by Patrick Henry, all use rhetorical strategies in the reading to convey their view of human nature. There are many different interpretations of human nature such as, humans are sinners from
Jonathan in his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (July 8, 1741), claims that the unconverted are hanging from the hands of God, and can be dropped off to the eternity of hell, his sermon is used to make the sinners be afraid and understand how the power of God is saving them, but it is only for his pleasure, unless if they return to Christianity. Edwards strengths his argument by using metaphors and imagery of a wrathful God to make the unconverted people afraid of being sinners and encourage them to have a relationship with Christ to be fully saved from falling to an eternity in the flames of hell. Edwards purpose is to start his sermon with such powerful use of visualization to provide fear to the sinners and give them a
Jonathan Edwards shows good persuasive technique by: building an arguments to persuade his audience, that they need to live a more devout life by speaking, using imagery in sentences to paint striking pictures into people's minds, and by using excellent word choice in his speech to the general audience. Jonathan Edwards demonstrates his persuasive technique by speaking, he directly addresses the problem of sinners. His speaking was pertained to sinners whom believe on a day to day basis that god or “ The Wrath Of God”cannot and will not overpower them. His focus is to change the people's mindset on this because when god is mad he can have a strong vengeance for consistent sinners whom are consecutively giving God’s wrath more and more things to feed off of and more reason to attack with their sins and guilt but by the mere grace of God’s right mind he stays content, but if it was to happen the sinners would not dare be able to go against a