Examples Of Simile In Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

During the time when Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was being written, there was much religious unrest. It had been only three decades since the gruesome Salem trials which led to the imprisonment and death of hundreds. This shocking massacre of innocent people led to a religious movement called the Great Awakening which Edwards led the charge in. Edwards preached to the masses about the revival of the interest in religion and a need for redemption in the eyes of God. Edward’s success in influencing the masses came not only because of the subjects about what he was speaking, but also because of his clever rhetorical strategies. Some of the rhetorical tools he employed were rhetorical questioning, similes, and anaphora.
One type of rhetorical

A simile is a rhetorical device that can be used to compare two unlike things and cleverly bring them together to give the audience something to relate to. In other words, a comparison of two seemingly different things. One particularly powerful simile is, “the wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and mores and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given (Edwards 97),” In this quote, Edwards compared God’s wrath to a raging body of water. He goes on to say that the longer the stream is stopped, the harsher it will be. The word choice, or syntax, Edwards had was simply spectacular. The comparison of His wrath to great waters gives the people an idea as to how ferocious the wrath of God is to Edwards. This word choice struck fear into the hearts of the audience and also shows that Edwards directed his anger at the audience. One can almost feel the passion and hatred within his

Anaphora is an obvious and deliberate repetition of a part of a sentence in order to make it stand out. “And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God 's had has helped you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you no not this very moment drop down into hell.” (Edwards 98). This chilling quote is telling the audience that there is no reason that God needs just to drop someone in Hell and to just leave them there. In fact according to the Bible, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (NIV Romans 3.23),” and God has the absolute right to let humanity sit and rot without his help. Again, the syntax gives the readers an idea as to how fiery Edwards’ speeches were. It is particularly interesting that Edwards used the word “dropped” towards the beginning of the quote. It is interesting because it gives the reader or the audience a visual idea as to how lame we are compared to God- as if we can be dropped in Hell just as trash can be dropped into a trash bin. Another profound paragon of Edwards’ hate is his contrast with the words sinful and wicked compared to solemn worship. The reason behind this