Jefferson Analysis

Thomas Jefferson wrote The Declaration of Independence in 1776 as means to show the world that the American colonies were not going to back down against the tyranny of King George III. The exigence of the piece was to convince people to join the Americans in the ongoing revolution against King George III because he was a tyrant. The primary assumption underlying this claim is that governments are made by the governed, and thus people have the right to overthrow an unjust government. The audience of the writing is both Americans who were not completely on board with the revolution as well as foreign powers who were not fully convinced that America would be up to the task of challenging the British Empire. The context of the writing is the American Revolution. The use of ethos, logos, and pathos is very apparent. Jefferson shows his trustworthiness through his eloquent writing style, such as his use of parallelism, anaphora, and periodicity. The long list of reasons given also contributes to Jefferson's credibility. His logical appeal is apparent in the long list of reasons for King George's tyranny. While there is a long list of reasons given, many of them are vague. For example, Jefferson says that taxes were imposed without consent in paragraph 19, but no mention of what taxes were levied is mentioned. Jefferson uses pathos through his strong language of calling King George a tyrant, or his eloquence on describing what rights men have and how it is their right to rise up against King George. The Declaration of Independence is a very effective piece of literature, as many countries such as France sought to help America to weaken the British Empire, and many more American colonists joined the cause to fight the British. The Declaration of Independence has been used as inspiration for many more revolutions around the world, suggesting that it is a very effective piece of literature and Thomas Jefferson truly knew what he was doing when he wrote it.