Sinners In The Hands Of The Angry God

Bebe Oguntade

Ap English III

9/2/09

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

According to the article, Jonathan Edwards conveys his opinion about impiousness. He thinks most people are not realistic, and the sooner they realize that Hell is real, the better it is for them. Edward’s main purpose of writing this article is to awake his audience that it is time to purify their religion, renew their personal faith in God, as well as instill a pious character in them. To him, people seem to be sinful and impious, and the only way he believed he could change them, was to make them cognizant of the outcome of impiousness. Most of Edwards’s comments, about the hereafter, are very negative, and this creates a fearful mood for the audience.

Through the use of tone, Edward displays a grievous tone, in order to win his audience. “That they were always exposed to destruction, as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to falling”. In this quote, it can be said that Edwards believes that people are their own worst enemies, and once you fall into this trap, it will be very difficult to get back on track. People are not completely dedicated to their religion, and they forget that there is someone who is actually superior to them. All this facts are not always put into consideration, until people find themselves in a compromising state, or they encounter a force that is above their humanly power.

Edwards also construes his opinion with certain metaphors. One of the metaphors is about the bow of God’s wrath being drawn and held over the hearts of sinners. The metaphor shows that God can start punishing the sinners at any point in time, but He has just decided to shower his mercies on them. Edwards also compares the sinners to spiders and serpents, creatures hated by human, just as sinners are hated by God. This shows his unconverted congregation how poorly God thinks of them. When audience see this, it will make them reconsider their deeds, and determine what to do with their lives, before it’s too late.

Edwards describes Hell with the use of imagery, in the sense that he produces a horrifying picture of the people who will never be safe from Hell. “The wrath of God burn against them, their damnation does not slumber, the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them and the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit as opened its mouth under them”. Edward’s use of imagery describing the horrors and torments awaiting sinners has a remarkable effect on his audience. Even if they do not believe in hell, Edwards way of explaining it, is so deep that it will make the audience frightened and terrified that they would have to believe in his method of piousness.

In conclusion, Jonathan Edwards’s ways of explaining the outcome of impiousness will be able to frighten audience, and maybe encourage them to get back on the right track and start living with morality as well as piousness.

Christopher Columbus

Bebe Oguntade

Ap English III

8/28/09

Christopher Columbus

Year in year out every twelfth of October, thousands of people celebrate Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. The main purpose of the article is to enlighten audience and give them the some useful information which they are yet to know about Columbus. First of all the speaker describes the subject of the article, which is Columbus, as well as his family background. He then proceeded by construing how Columbus had embarked on his voyage to the West Indies, discovered various things unknown to several people and then arrested by some Spanish settlers.

The letter Columbus wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella is a very significant artifact, because it will give majority of people an opportunity to understand exactly how he felt, as well as what he went through during his very last years. His main purpose of writing the letter to the monarchs was to let them know what he encountered during his Journey to the Indies. “I write this to you from which you will learn how in thirty three days, passed from the canary islands with the most illustrious King and Queen our sovereigns gave to me. And there I found very many islands filled with people innumerable amount of them all I have taken possessions of their highness by proclamation made and with the royal standard unfurled, and no opposition was offered to me” In this quote, Columbus describes the beginning of his journey. Everything seems to be in favor of him, and it also tells that he has no problems or nothing to worry about.

Columbus also makes use makes use of imagery, to describe the environment he came across, even though audience will not see this in physically, the way he construes them, will enable his audience to create a cognitive map of the environment . “ for I saw them as green and as lovely as they are in Spain in May, and some of them were flowering, some bearing fruits ………… there are six or eight kinds of palm, which are wonder to behold on account of their beautiful variety…… In the interior are mines of metals and the population is without number. Espanola is a marvel”. There are certain dictions Columbus that gives the environment an admirable and appealing characterization. They are words like lovely, flowering, fruits, and beautiful. These words create an enticing mood for the audience.

After explaining is discoveries, Columbus went ahead to describe the disastrous part of his voyage. “Suddenly, while I was waiting for ships to come to your high presence with victory and the great news of gold being very secure and joyful, I was made a prisoner and with my two brothers was thrown into a ship laden with fetters, stripped to the skin, very ill-treated and without being tried or condemned”. This quote shows Columbus’s appeal to ethos. He displays a tone of anguish which construes how terrible he and his brothers had been treated. This creates a sympathetic mode for the audience, when they see how the innocent Columbus had been dehumanized.

Diction

Emily's pink parrot is as beautiful as a rose tree.