Thomas Paine's Common Sense Reflection

From what I've read of Thomas Paine's Common Sense, I can tell that he really put a lot of thought into his writing. The reader can tell that he is obviously writing in the style of the Rationalism literary period based on the way he goes about presenting his points-of-view. While other political writers of the time often presented their opinions and propaganda as facts, Thomas Paine does not often give into that kind of unsophisticated writing. While you can tell that his writing is fueled by his emotions and opinions, you can also see that he does not let himself get carried away or swept up in his own justified political frustration. As far as I could see, he did not wander off topic either. He sticks to his points and defenses without any unnecessary interruptions. This makes the writing flow a lot better and keeps the reader interested for a longer period of time.
Another thing I noticed while reading this and listening to my classmates' summaries of various sections of the text is how Paine uses religious stories to his advantage. One of my classmates mentioned a story about Sampson in their section of Common Sense. I think that Thomas Paine was very clever in his use of biblical stories. Though his writing would have generally been written for upper-class white males, the use of biblical stories as references ensures that his work could reach a broader audience, if he wanted it to. The other benefit to using the Bible as a reference to make his points is that it gives the reader an example they are likely to be familiar with. Since the main religions of colonial and revolutionary America were forms of Christianity, most of the population was likely to have read or listened to the Bible in church at some point in time. It also probably appealed to the Rationalists that Paine used the Bible more as a reference in his work instead of using it for religious purposes, such as in this passage:

As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot be justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be defended on the authority of scripture; for the will of the Almighty, as declared by Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by kings. All anti-monarchial parts of scripture have been very smoothly glossed over in monarchial governments, but they undoubtedly merit the attention of countries which have their governments yet to form.

The writing style for this work is very to the point, though, at some times, it is easy to see where Paine got worked up and began to rant and ramble. Thankfully, he seems to catch himself before we as the audience lose interest. There are also times when he seems to make fun of and insult the people who willingly follow a monarchial government such as when he says "However, it is needless to spend much time in exposing the folly of hereditary right, if there are any so weak as to believe it, let them promiscuously worship the ass and lion, and welcome." (Paine).
Though this isn't the kind of thing I usually go for, I enjoyed reading this and seeing how Paine called out the monarchial system of government.


Paine, Thomas. "Thomas Paine's Common Sense - Text Version." Archiving Early America: Primary Source Material from 18th Century America. Web. 17 Oct. 2010. .