Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry's speech that we read from our book was a great example of Rationalism writing. The style of writing was very different from Puritan writing in many ways. First of all, the sentence structure was very different from that of Puritan writing. Henry used great detail in his writing, and used more complex sentences, including metaphor. Also, the Rationalist writing had a slight difference in opinion on the subject of God. I don't believe that God was referenced one time in the writing. In our history class, we learned that this speech was written during the Enlightenment period. The Enlightenment period was when people started accepting scientific ideas and they drew away from the church. Jonathon Edwards was one of the preachers who wrote in response to the Enlightenment period. I believe that there was a shift in personal belief when this speech was written. Henry wanted to tell all of the people that he was presenting his ideas, and that the people could take them as they wanted, not as God told them they had to. Also, they were Patrick Henry's ideas and thoughts, not God's. This was a time where people were breaking away from the church, and it showed in the writing style.

The speech was basically given telling the colonists that they needed to go to war with England. The speech implied that the war was unavoidable, and if they did not start the conflict first, the British were going to start it with them. Patrick also brought up the point that the colonists had tried to talk to the English government officials to reason with them, but they just ignored them and treated them even worse. Henry mainly used his speech to appeal to the colonists emotions. Emotion is a very powerful thing, and sometimes it is even more powerful than rationalization. That seems funny, because it was written during the rationalism period, and emotion seems to be the exact opposite of rationalization. One way that he appeals to his audience's emotion is by asking many rhetorical questions. The audience would become engaged in the speech and become more willing to fight.

One major thing that Henry does that could hurt his reputation is when he insults the English government officials. He referred to one of them as a "tyrant," which may have been more of a hindrance on his speech than a help. By insulting the English, he may have lost some of his supporters who were "on the fence" about the idea, and it also ruined his credibility. That was one of the only major flaws in his speech.

In Edward's sermon, he tried to scare the Puritans into coming over to his belief, while Henry left it up to the listener to decide. Henry's approach was much more inviting, but still making a good point very clearly. Edward's sermon also made a very clear point, but he made it in a way that would be very intimidating to people. Henry made his cause sound very inviting and gave people a reason to join him in his fight.

Henry, Patrick. "Title of Speech" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. Page Numbers. Print.