Jonathan Edwards was a popular Protestant preacher during the Great Awakening, a time of religious revival and fervor during the 1730s and 1740s. In his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Edwards uses the rhetorical devices of imagery and repetition to convey the pilgrims’ attitude toward God and their way of life. Edwards’ profuse usage of imagery throughout his sermon conveyed the pilgrims’ attitude towards God. Imagery is a rhetorical device which consists of descriptive language that appeals to a person’s five senses and their emotions. In his sermon, Edwards creates vivid images of an angry God and of God’s frightening wrath in order to induce fear among his audience to persuade them to reform their ways. Edwards states, …show more content…
Repetition is a rhetorical device in which words or phrases are repeated multiple times in order to add emphasis, power, or unity to a literary work. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Edwards uses the repetition of the word “nothing” to emphasize that there is nothing a human can do to escape the wrath of God. Edwards preaches, “ … nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing you ever have done, nothing you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment…” By repeating the word “nothing,” the audience is reminded that it they have no control over their destiny. This idea is a parallel to the Puritan doctrine of predestination, which states that God has decided whether you are destined for salvation or damnation, and there is nothing you can do to change that fate. The repetition of the word “nothing,” which alludes to the doctrine of predestination, conveys the Pilgrims’ way of life. As believers in predestination, the Pilgrims lived life in a Puritan way. Therefore, the pilgrims lived simple lives with a strict emphasis placed on religion and following God’s