The Rhetorical Analysis Of The Declaration Of Independence

One reason that The Declaration of Independence was so influential was that Thomas Jefferson’s claims against the King of England were easy to understand and logical. Typical complaints include “For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us;” and “For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.” Jefferson uses plain language that everyone can understand to point out large injustices done by the king. His statements about the King are short and to the point. He does not waste any words or bore the reader with abstract writing or excess words and thoughts. He goes from one point to the next to the next in such a fashion that the reader’s concentration is never broken. His points are logical and everyone living in the colonies at that time and many people around the world probably had some idea of the incidents behind all his grievances against the king. Jefferson raps up the injustices done by the king by declaring the United Colonies to be free and independent states.

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, explains to his readers why the colonies chose to abolish Great Britain’s government. His goal is to inform the readers that the government has certain responsibilities to the governed and that the British failed to adhere to its responsibilities to its colonists. His second goal is to justify their actions by explaining why it was not considered treason. By establishing his credibility and appealing to ethos, pathos and logos, Jefferson successfully wrote an informative, impactful, and inspirational document.

The purpose is to outline the wrongs the King of Britain and Britain have committed against the colonists, and why this has caused them to want to separate from Britain. The article is written directly for King George III, but it was also for the country of Britain and the thirteen colonies to read, as well as the world to see the separation of the colonies from Britain. The tone is clear and rational, yet it is evident that Jefferson is passionate about what he is saying. The speaker is Thomas Jefferson, who was Secretary of State for George Washington at the time, but went on to become the President of the United States.

The Declaration of Independence is overall a rebellious document because Jefferson expressed how he and the colonists were treated wrongly. He displays how being fair to Parliament has gotten them nowhere. Using rhetorical devices in his piece, he presents how he and the colonists are fighting for their rights to achieve what they deserve. Thomas Jefferson uses parallelism and logos to express the purpose of the Declaration of Independence to explain why the colonies chose to separate themselves from Great Britain.

After the American revolution, the founding fathers sent a declaration to king George declaring that America could be free. When the founding fathers wrote the declaration of independence many people thought that they had written it for selfish reasons, but this was not the case. Our founding fathers had actually written it to make our country better. By writing the declaration of independence they wanted to justify and clarify the actions of the second continental congress. The founding fathers were not selfish when they wrote the declaration of independence, they just wanted to help unite our country, although the fact of some of them being slave owners made them selfish.

1B) The Declaration of Independence uses several rhetorical strategies, making the argumentative testament of the wrongdoings of the king an effective in pursuing equality for all men. Jefferson utilizes logos, pathos and ethos to prove his point to the country holding their liberty prisoner. Jefferson’s use of logos begins with stating the obvious reason the king should set the people free: the people have the right to the pursuit of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” (2). The King has not done good to the people, in fact he has refused to pass the laws necessary to create order, dissolved representative houses, cut off trade, and imposed unlawful taxes upon the people. They have the basic human rights given to them by God that should set them free from the tyrannical king. Some of the emotional side of Jefferson’s views slip into this argument, such as "mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable" (5). While stating further wrongdoings, Jefferson’s use of pathos increases, raising the rage of the republic at the injustice of the rules they have been subjected to. “He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation” (26). Jefferson calls for a sense of empathy from the crown and establishes a sense of severe discontent

The theme of the passage is that everyone is equal. "We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal: that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights"(Jefferson 8-10). The author want the readers to know that everyone is created equal and if anyone tries to take his or her rights he or she should fight for it. The author persuasive the readers by listing how unfair the government is. "He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries; He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of offices to harass our people and eat out their substance"(Jefferson 59-62). “A prince whose character is this marked by

Thomas Jefferson and other intellectual thinkers gathered together in the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House to write the Declaration of Independence. This document was published on July 4, 1776 stating that the colonies were independent from Great Britain, and mentioned the basic rights and liberties for Americans. In The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson’s purpose is to announce the separation of the thirteen colonies from Great Britain. Jefferson’s use of different rhetorical strategies such as ethos, logos, and diction to help him to develop his argument by providing facts about Great Britain’s actions and showing empathy for the colonists. Thomas Jefferson’s use of ethos helps him develop his argument about the thirteen colonies separating from Great Britain and also gives the audience a sense of trust in him.

The Declaration of Independence is a document of history. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, John Adams, and Robert Livingston the writers of the declaration wanted a free nation, not to be controlled by a greedy King. It is what meant to separate us from the United Kingdom and the King himself. In this document the authors use rhetorical devices such as repetition, word choice, and ethos/pathos/logos to turn the people against the King, and be their own person, their own nation. Repetition is using or repeating a word or phrase in something written or spoken.

In Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence he uses focal points to help people perceive his document. By showing the failure of the British Crown and demonstrating the rights of the citizens Jefferson is able to get his audience to understand his message clearly. He also uses ethos, pathos, and logos to improve his writing. Thomas Jefferson’s argument was effective in the separation from Great Britain, because he focuses on the failure of the British Crown and the rights of the colonial citizens; through egos, pathos, and logos.

The editors write, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights …” This version, credits the given rights to their creator, or God. By mentioning God in the declaration, the editors are able to provoke ethos, something that the Christian King of England would not be able to ignore. Going further, the editors evoke logos in the twenty-second paragraph, where Jefferson says, “a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a People who mean to be free” Meanwhile, the editors write, “a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” Though this difference in word order is slight, it suggests a completely different implication. Jefferson’s version implies that the colonies will eventually become free, after the king agrees to sever all ties. However, the editors’ version indicates that the colonies are a free society, even if it is not official; they are saying that a monarch cannot contain a people who already consider themselves to have certain liberties and separate

In The Declaration of Independence there are multiples examples of rhetoric. Many of these examples are hard to find and at the same time there are some that are very easily noticed. Thomas Jefferson as well as Congress wrote the Declaration of Independence in a time of tension. The Declaration was written in order to persuade the king as well as loyalists to the king that they should have unalienable rights. He accomplished this persuasion while being passive aggressive at the same time.

By the repetition of this, the audience will want to be represented because “He has refused assent to laws.” These details explain Britain’s actions towards the ill-treated colonists. Jefferson lists grievances one by one to remind the colonists about the torture of the king and to show that “He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance.” The long list of complaints exhibits an anaphoric device to provoke the sentiments of the audience. "He is" is the only phrase other than "He has" in the list of grievances. The present tense of this section emphasizes the need for rebellion because if there is no reaction to this, only "death, desolation, and tyranny" await. Towards the ending, the document has many with efficient devices that only intensify the ethical sense of the declaration. The changeover connecting the “have we” of the first sentence is reversed in the “we have” in the second. “We must therefore…” lets the people feel united. It shows the intentions of “the good people of the colonies” making the right choice to separate from Britain. The parallelism of the repetition of the “we have” unites the colonists and Thomas Jefferson and the “he has” illustrates the king against the colonists. There is a use of proper structure and unification in the last paragraph, due to the returning of the pattern of beginning with "We.” The colonists now feel

The use of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence is for the average americans across the country. The Declaration of Independence was written in order to clarify and justify the actions of The Second Continental Congress. The colonists thought that the Englishman deserve their right to justice and have power over their government. They wanted to protect their rights from the British from taking control over their land. Throughout the Declaration of Independence the document itself has some very inspirational and influential ideas that had an impact on the Constitution such as protecting our privacy from the government.

In the beginning of the letter he starts with an introduction. In the introduction he has two long sentences that have a beginning, middle, and end. The document starts with describing and explaining why the colonies have decided to be a separate nation. In the second sentence he defines what it means to be a human being. Jefferson mentions five “self-evident” truths, those truths are “that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes