Eary American Literature - Book Report/Review Example

This paper will throw light upon the work of Thomas Paine and how he inspired the Americans in more ways than one. Common Sense provides a comprehensive understanding of why Paine wanted the Americans to fight for freedom. This masterpiece was published in the year 1776. This was published anonymously by Paine; this was done so because in those days the people did not have the rights to express themselves. Thomas Paine was instrumental in motivating people. He was often taken to the soldiers who were going to participate in war and he used to give them speeches to motivate them and the soldiers enjoyed and relished his speeches and got motivated to a great extent.

This goes to show how instrumental Paine was in motivating people. The domination of Americans by the Great Britain was a period when the American growth was hampered. The British rulers levied heavy taxes on the Americans who were forced to pay the heavy taxes, in addition to this there was corruption in the Church and not only in the Church, corruption was very common in almost all the areas at that time. This also led to the puritan movement which saw puritans move to another place to live in peace and harmony.

This is also called the Mayflower Compact; the Mayflower Compact was a ship which transported American Puritans to another place. Paine was simply ridiculed by the fact that an island was rulin. Paine believed that there can be no growth possible if the British continue to rule the Americans, this was very true and made a lot of sense. People suffered from various diseases and had no food to eat; diseases like Scurvy affected countless people and took away many a life. The most important point of Paine was that the British rule had no compassion for the Americans whatsoever, they wanted to prosper at the cost of the Americans and this was unacceptable and this was exactly why Paine wanted the Americans to take an immediate action to free themselves from the shackles of slavery.

Hesitation of Americans to Declare Independence "Common Sense was written for the common man. It came out of Thomas Paine's own guts -- out of the bitter years of poverty, the soured dreams, and the dreams that persisted in spite of disappointment and failure. It flowed from Paine's' anger and frustration with a complacent and self-congratulatory society that turned its back on misery and injustice, while complaining of the insolence and radicalism of the lower classes. It is passion that gives power to language, and Paine's passion flowed into the sentences he wrote.

Government and society were often confused, he told his readers. Actually they were quite different things. "Society is promoted by our wants and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. . The first is a patron, the last a punisher." That was the way, in any event, in which Thomas Paine had experienced government, as the punisher, as that aspect of society that preserved for the few their privileges against the needs of the many.

" (Common Sense, 26 March 2009). Paine strongly believed that