Sara Gonzlez Castellanos.

1A- American Literature I

The Declaration of Independence

A number of politic circumstances (i.e. Tea Act, Quebec Acts, Coercive Acts) made up by Great Britain, made that the English Colonies in America were in a situation of discontent. Since 1775, the King of Great Britain, George III, accused the Colonies of trying to get the independence from Great Britain, so he order to reduce them by force; but although that, it existed time before a confront between them; it is true that in that Colonies it existed another confront between loyalists and republicans. The Declaration of Independence had some antecedents. For example, we have the author of the Common Sense, Thomas Paine, who published this pamphlet in 1776, where he manifested the discontent of the citizens of the colonies. The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, a cult judge of a family from Virginia, helped by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. It was written in July 4, 1776. It is and official and politic document although we can see some literary aspects. The Declaration of Independence has an introduction in which we can see a justification of why they want to be independent, not all the causes, only a kind of summary: abuses usurpations Despotism injuries Tyranny , because they are enumerated after this introduction, but the rights that the people have to do what they are doing, this declaration, are written at the very beginning. First of all it is said that a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. Here we can see that maybe they are trying to justify the declaration as a right and they put the laws of the mankind among this fact. This idea is clearer a few lines later, where it is said We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equalunalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness (a very American idea). Before the 18thC, there were mostly a Puritan thought that believed that the man was a sinful creature and that men dont have these kinds of Rights. A literary characteristics of this period is the importance of Nature, and we can see this in the first part of the text: the Laws of Nature and of Natures God entitle them, so he is attributing the fact of having this Rights to the Nature, Nature give us Happiness, Freedom The Enlightenment had an influence in this text too; whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of this ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government This idea deals with the enlightened idea of looking for a democracy based on justice, freedom and rights of man. Since Maquiavelo, at the first part of the Modern Ages, he says that, if the prince doesnt comply with the characteristics of a correct Government, the people have the right of abolishing this Government, although Maquiavelo said that the prince should be authoritarian. In the text, the idea is opposite of that idea of absolute Despotism when it is said that the King of Great Britain had established an absolute Tyranny, although Thomas Jefferson, in this text, says that: Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, so he is trying to make us understand that this declaration of independence it is not something trivial, but something that had been affecting the American people for a long time. As we read the text, we see clearer the influence of the change of the social, political and philosophical values that happened in the 18thC.

Sara Gonzlez Castellanos. 1A- American Literature I The second part of the text is an enumeration of the causes that make the Americans writing this declaration of independence. They are arguments for justified the previous ideas we saw. We can see the conditions of dependence in which they were before the independence. We have to think that this enumeration is made for finding a support and some things could be been exaggerated. At the end of the fragment we have, it is very clear the idea of freedom they pursue: without our consent for abolishing the free System of English Laws The language used in the text, we can say that has a correct and tidy structure and the lexicon used is correct and with a kind of poetry characteristics. In the pamphlet Common Sense of Thomas Paine, the lexicon and the language is more direct and rude, and grammatically incorrect, but it helped Americans not to trust in George III. The Declaration of Independece is the last step for becoming real the process of independence. The independence would be recognised by Great Britain in 1783. From our point of view, we think that the author and the two ones that helped him used a form to write that catch the attention of the reader, the words are not difficult to understand but they are not very usual too. They are very clear in what they want to said, they are convincing and they use a large enumeration of arguments that hold the goal they pursuit. At the end maybe we can say that he uses something that convinces us more: for quartering for protecting for imposing taxes this could make us think that is a poem, or something like that, and keeps our attention and when we read it sounded well. We think its a very interesting text and very clear to understand what was happening, although, as we said before, some things could be been exaggerated.