Literary Analysis
John Edward gave the sermon “In the hands of an angry god” and reached out to his listeners using scare tactics and made them tremble and terrified of what he was saying. Edward preached his speech during the time of the Great Awakening. He used fear as a way to get people to repent. Edward portrays God as merciless when he states there is “nothing you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment”. He makes God seem so angry that he has no love anymore and like everyone is doomed unless they repent in that very moment. Edward delivers his sermon with the ability to persuade and uses fear as his tactics.
Edward most famous line “The God that holds you over a fire pit of hell, much as one hold a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire… he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire” is probably one of the most convincing lines. Even though it is a metaphor it is still terrifying and he is using this metaphor to convince people to convert to Christianity. An Edward talk about God has so many unsearchable ways to take wicked men out of the world and send them to hell. Since wicked men are referred to as unconverted men, many people convert in fear of not being saved.
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Edward also use metaphors such as “The Bow of God’s wrath is bend and the arrow made ready on a string and justice bends the arrow at your heart and strains the bow, and it is nothing but mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps there arrow one moment from drunk in your blood.” As people we would be terrified to anger God anymore.
It gives you the image of an arrow flying out of the sky and piercing your heart. Edward preaches that people wickedness was as “heavy as lead” and therefore is pulling them straight down to hell. Edward gives us the image of being on a paper thin spot on earth and one day we will fall through the chambers of
hell. Edward also informs us that on our own we cannot reach salvation that it is God’s mercy alone that saves us. Edward states that “That wrath of God is like great waters that are damned for the present; they increase more and more and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapidly and mighty is its course, when once its let loose… If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery flood of the fieriness and wrath of God, would rush forth with conceivable fury, were ten thousand times greater than it is… It would be nothing to withstand or endure it. This would terrify people. We visualize a flood happening destroying everything and taking us all to hell. Edward really plays with emotions to make you believe what he wants you to believe. John Edward uses the emotional appeal of fear to persuade his audience that they should repent and turn to God. He does this through the image of hell and all the ways to kill us and send us here. Edward defiantly appealed to everyone’s emotional side. Edwards’s sermon was delivering with the ability to persuade and use of fear as his tactics.
Jonathan Edwards creates a more effective argument for the intended audience in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” than “The Speech in the Virginia Convention” written by Patrick Henry, by utilizing various techniques. Patrick Henry makes a strong argument however in the end, Edwards’ sermon grows to be more effective. Edwards creates the argument by strengthening the writing through tone, structure, fallacies and knowledge of the congregation that became his audience. Henry’s piece uses methods of oratory persuasion but the actual topic of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” has an advantage from the start by appealing to fear, a fallacy of logic. Even with the strong basis “The Speech in the Virginia Convention” by Patrick Henry, Edwards’ “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God” proves the more effective piece in the end.
Jonathan Edward's sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," was an example of a persuasive speech in which Edwards used scare tactics to persuade his audience. Jonathan Edwards' purpose was simply to convey a message to the people of the church with intentions of changing their moral and religious views. Edwards often appealed to reason and logic and highly emotional "fire and brimstone" techniques to convey his point.
In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards created the emotion of fear by using imagery and figurative language to persuade his audience. He used imagery and figurative language so the wrath of God is more fearsome and gave you a mental picture of hell in your head.
In the sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards, he preached about a stricter Calvinist theology of Puritanism. Edwards delivered it at the Massachusetts congregation on July 8, 1741. He blatantly uses rhetorical strategies to instill fear into his audience if they are to continue to not be active Puritans in religion. Edwards uses polysyndeton, harsh diction and tone, and the appeal to emotion along with the use of semicolons to develop his message.
In the book, Apostles of Disunion, author Charles B. Dew opens the first chapter with a question the Immigration and Naturalization service has on an exam they administer to prospective new American citizens: “The Civil War was fought over what important issue”(4). Dew respond by noting that “according to the INS, you are correct if you offer either of the following answers: ‘slavery or states’ rights’” (4). Although this book provides more evidence and documentation that slavery was the cause of the Civil War, there are a few places where states’ rights are specifically noted. In presenting the findings of his extensive research, Dew provides compelling documentation that would allow the reader to conclude that slavery was indeed the cause for both secession and the Civil War.
God and the Indian is a two person play written by Drew Hayden Taylor. In this play we have a man named George that was a former priest at a residential school. We also have a lady named Johnny Indian that was a former student at said residential school. In the play Johnny accuses George of having molested her as a child. George tells Johnny that she is delusional and will not admit to his wrongdoings. The author tells the story from both George and Johnny’s sides. I think what the author is really trying to portray here is the denial of the people that worked in the name of the church at residential schools years after they had left and/or been shut down.
Edward used 2nd person, which uses the word “you” a lot. He also had a very harsh and blunt tone about it. Using this point of view and style it makes it seem like the author was directing it towards the reader. he used real life situations to relate what was happening to the reader. “It gave him,to the very depth of his kind heart,to observe how the children fled from his approach.
And while describing the fiery wrath of the “Angry God,” Edwards states, “The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation.” By focusing on this group of people, Edwards instills a sense of fear within the audience of “sinners.” 3) Edwards purpose in delivering this sermon was to inform “sinners” of the inevitable doom that He thus creates a sense of helplessness in his audience, and encourages them to submit to God and renew their faith in Christianity. His use of parallelism allows Edwards to exponentially build a sense of fear, and it is maintained throughout this sermon.
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Rhetorical Analysis “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards uses imagery and symbolism to persuade the audience to become more devout Christians by channeling fear and emphasizing religious values. Jonathan Edwards was a Puritan minister who preached during the time of the Great Awakening in America. During this period of religious revival, Edwards wanted people to return to the devout ways of the early Puritans in America. The spirit of the revival led Edwards to believe that sinners would enter hell. Edwards’ sermon was primarily addressed to sinners for the purpose of alerting them about their sins and inspiring them to take action to become more devoted to God.
Edwards, who also had Puritan beliefs, was a philosopher and theologian and his way of thinking was more in-depth and complex. He used repetition to drive his sermons home and convinced his congregations of the evils and wickedness of hell through the use of intense analogies. His “fire and brimstone” way of preaching frightened people and made them feel a deep need for salvation. Edwards believed that all humans were natural sinners and God was eagerly awaiting to judge them. He wrote "their foot shall slide in due time" meaning that mankind was full of inevitable sinners.
Topic/ Thesis Statement: Don’t judge a book by its cover, some people are not who they claim to be, or looks can be deceiving.
He chastised his congregation repeatedly in high hopes that they will turn away from their sinful ways. His Puritan beliefs were the impetus force behind his message. The Puritans emphasized the “covenant of works”, which was in the control of humans, and the “covenant of grace”, which was in God 's power to give. (Covenant of grace). Edwards believed that mankind could save itself from damnation depending on the way that they lived. Basically, it is man’s control to save himself of certain damnation. He believed God 's grace could possibly be limited. He proposed a belief that God is judgmental and angry. Edwards ' belief in God was that He was ready to throw people into hell because of all of their unrepentant sins. Edwards used his sermon to give proof to the people that they were only worthy of hell and God 's grace kept the people from being tossed into the Lake of fire. “There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently ignite and burst into flames of hell fire, if it were not for God 's restraints. “There is laid in the very nature of carnal men, a foundation for the torments of hell”(Edwards 432). Edwards believed man was so dishonorable that hell was waiting for him. He preached that God was showing grace and mercy to people or otherwise mankind would be destroyed by hell 's
Written during the American Romanticism period, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” by William Irving, personifies the belief in the primacy of imagination. The period of Romanticism in America is often seen as the crucial period of American culture, as it was the central movement of the Renaissance period that moved into a more free-feeling and artistic approach to literature. American Gothic literature made its early appearance with William Irving, first with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in 1820, and carrying over to “The Devil and Tom Walker” in 1824, both of which use a macabre approach to establish a moral ending (Matterson). Told by a narrator known as Geoffrey Crayon, “The Devil and Tom Walker” takes on the tone of a legend or tall tale as the story describes the life of a greedy money lender by the name of Tom Walker, who sales his soul to the devil to gain wealth. Irving ultimately uses literary elements such as symbolism and character development, as well as including themes such as greed and hypocrisy to establish a moral to the corrupt man’s tale.
He created fear by showing sinners their future if they were to continue to sin. Puritans were avid believers in the afterlife, and when Edwards explains a dreadful “long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all.” this exploits the Puritans worst fears of a bleak afterlife. Edwards 105. He also gave the “bandwagon effect” to Puritans, individually feeling that while everyone else they knew was rejoicing with God in Heaven, they would be perishing in Hell if they did not get rid of their sins.... ...
“Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare is one aimed towards making the general public aware of the many psychopaths that inhabit the world we live in. Throughout the book Hare exposes the reader to a number of short stories; all with an emphasis on a characteristic of psychopaths. Hare makes the claim that close monitoring of psychopathy are vital if we ever hope to gain a hold over Psychopathy- A disorder that affects not only the individual but also society itself. He also indicates one of the reasons for this book is order to correctly treat these individuals we have to be able to correctly identify who meets the criteria. His ultimate goal with the text is to alleviate some of the confusion in the increase in criminal activity by determining how my of this is a result of Psychopathy.