Reflection- Declaration of Independance

The Declaration of Independence was a very confusing piece of literature for me to read. It was probably so difficult because it is more of a historical piece, and I am not really into not good at history.

In our previous class period of English we learned about faulty logic and the use of propaganda. By definition propaganda is are the methods and approaches used to spread ideas that further a cause - a political, commercial, religious, or civil cause(Recognizing Propoganda). In many arguements made people use these faulty logic and uses of propaganda. The most common are name calling, which is using negative labels or names to call someone, card stacking, which is when you only present information about one side so the reader does not really have a chance to form an opinion on the other, and generalizations, where you group everyone together in their opinions and thoughts.

The Decleration of Independence did in fact use a lot of good logic and did a good way of getting their point accross in a non faulty manor. In the Decleration they list the many things that King George did, calling together legeslative houses repeatedly for invasions, making people uncomfortable, refusing to pass laws, and refusing elections(Jefferson 123). They list the many things that the King did in a factual manor and that is a good use of logic.

However, there are also quite a few forms of faulty logic and propoganda in the Decleration of Independence as well. The Decleration says "He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people"(Jefferson 124). This is a form of a bias opinion and is also an extreme exageration. The king did not literally burn the towns, ravage the coasts, or literally destroy lives of the people. This is just an exagerated opinion on how they feel which is a use of faulty logic.

There was quite a big technique that is faulty that I also picked up on. It says in one part of the Decleration of Independence that all mean are created equal and their rights cannot be taken away(Jefferson 122). They say that men are all equal, but then they spend almost the whole entire Decleration of Independence tearing the king to shreds basically and just bashing him the whole time. If all men are equal I do not think that they should sit there and right about how awful of a person he is. I also think that if Jefferson and his co-writers of the Decleration had their way they would not want the King to have rights because they talk of how awful of a person is. This is a bit of a contridiction if you ask me because if a man is as equal as everyone else, then there should not be so many awful things to say to an equal of you(Regocnizing Propoganda). Many arguements and famous documents use these. Even the Decleration of Independence uses a few of these examples and even a few other faulty logic and propoganda example.


Jefferson, Thomas. The Declaration of Independence. Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 120-124. Print.

"Recognizing Propaganda--Guide to Critical Thinking--Academic Support."Academic.cuesta.edu. Cuesta College. Web. 27 Sept. 2011.