Augustine's Confessions Rhetorical Analysis

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Teagan Ellsworth 11/3/15 Augustine’s Confessions Saint Augustine’s Confessions is a delicately crafted book, whose main goal is bringing people to God. Saint Augustine accomplishes this task through heavy use of dualism, personal evidence, and scriptural evidence, as well as utilizing a humble tone throughout the entire work. When stating his main assertion, that happiness is coming unto God, Augustine’s first method is his portrayal of his past life in juxtaposition to his current life. The comparison of sadness and despair to his present joy (119) helps cement the less accessible ideas of eternal life and death. This concept of dualism is present throughout most of the book, as Augustine tends to classify everything as either a sin or as a way to glorify God (48). Augustine also juxtaposes the difference between good works and bad through his own actions by a lack of justification for his bad deeds in his youth, such as with the example of the pears. Augustine writes, “Let my heart now tell you what prompted me to do wrong for no purpose, and why it was only my own love of…show more content…
It is this that ties all of Augustine’s pleas together into a cohesive block, without making him appear too arrogant or pretentious for his message of humility. Augustine attributes everything to his God, stating that, “I should not even exist if it were not by your gift” (41). How Augustine narrates gives one the feeling that this is an intimate conversation between him and God, and that the reader is simply a bystander who has been allowed to peer in. This adds to his credibility as well, as the reader is not attacked by Augustine, but rather just awash in his joy in God. This leads to a more honest form of persuasion through example, as the reader is able to not only understand Augustine’s argument that God is good, but sees Augustine’s own personal connection to God and happiness through
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