Sayf Eddine Merzouk

AMST/PSC 2120W
Spring 2018

Thomas Paine, Common Sense

In Common Sense, Thomas Paine argues that it is in America's best interest to be free from

Britain. He believed that it is ridiculous and against the natural law that an island reigns on a

continent.

Under Britain, the American colonies were not guaranteed protection because every time

Britain went to war, America's economic ties with Britain led to the ruin of its trade. Further, he

argues that the true motherly figure of America, if any, is Europe, and not Britain; referring to

religious persecution in Britain, and concluding that no proper "mother" would ever act like that

with its subjects.

For that reason, Thomas Paine denounces the commonly used metaphor of the mother

protecting its child. Paine's "mother metaphor" rests on two mains points. He argues that unlike

the nurturing and kind mother-child relationship described in England; England treats its supposed

child, America, unfairly, with selfishness and brutality.

On the other hand, he also posits that like in a normal household, the child has grown old and

matured, and is now ready to take on its own responsibilities and live on its own. A further

illustration of the mother metaphor is bestowed by Thomas Paine when he associates the union

between Britain and America to the milk of a mother, while the struggle for independence is seen

as the meat. The allusion to America's growing economic and military prowess is clear. Therefore,

it is time that America changes and becomes an autonomous and self-sufficient country.