A Comparison Of Sojourner Truth And Eula Biss

What makes “Ain’t I a Woman?” worthy of reading? Its qualitative features such as the meaning and central idea, structure and organization, and the rhetorical strategies Sojourner Truth used for persuasion makes it an appropriate writing to read in an American Literature class. The purpose of Sojourner Truth’s speech is to persuade the audience that women and men should have the same rights. Students must connect ideas and examples over the entire text to understand Sojourner Truth’s argument and to infer that the central idea involves gender and racial discrimination. Because of the embedded nature of these ideas, the text is very complex.

On August 28, 1955, fourteen year old Emmett Till was beaten, tortured and shot. Then with barbed wire wrapped around his neck and tied to a large fan, his body was discarded into the Tallahatchi River. What was young Emmett’s offense that brought on this heinous reaction of two grown white men? When he went into a store to buy some bubble gum he allegedly whistled at a white female store clerk, who happened to be the store owner’s wife. That is the story of the end of Emmett Till’s life. Lynchings, beatings and cross-burning had been happening in the United States for years. But it was not until this young boy suffered an appalling murder in Mississippi that the eyes of a nation were irrevocably opened to the ongoing horrors of racism in

Have you faced racial persecution due to the color of your skin? The time was 1900’s and this was the nightmare that Ida B. Wells-Barnett wrote of in Mob Rule in New Orleans. This is the true account of Robert Charles as he fights for his life to escape the hands of a lynching mob. This impassion story collaborates with the witness of this terrifying event that Wells describes. Wells uses her literary skills to shed light on racial discrimination, media bias, and her personal crusade for justice to portray this heart wrenching reality of the violent lynching during the 19th century.

Every writer has a story to tell. No matter gender, religion, or any other classification they all share equal importance. When readers overlook those things, they find great pieces of literature such as Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson and Judith Sargent Murray’s On the Equality of the Sexes. Unbiased readers get to experience the tragic story of Mary’s life in captivity alongside the revelations of Native American stereotypes and Judith’s take on the unfair world of being an educated woman in America. Although they are talking about two different topics they both share the similar conclusion that Americas identity revolves around using stereotypes to defend against anything greater

Sojourner Truth was an extremely strong and courageous woman. She proceeded through many hardships and Truth even escaped the bondage from slavery. After that she spoke out for women’s rights and was even the first African American woman to take a white man to court and win. Throughout her eighty six years of life Sojourner Truth she stumbled through numerous hardships, escaped slavery, and spoke out on women’s rights.

She uses the book to refute an argument by Francis Beal that in his essay Double Jeopardy that claims that African American men are victims of black matriarchs. She also refutes that black women have benefited economically from the occurrence than black men. In the reading, Wallace places responsibility for change on both African Americans. She also states that racism and sexism are tools used by the white to retain control over African Americans. She states that tensions amid black men and women resulted from the adoption of family standards as observed in gender roles applied by the whites. Wallace states that the reasons as to why women are not progressing are that black men sacrificed their collaboration with Black women to pursue their interests of patriarchal power (Wallace,

‘Fire in a canebrake’ is quite a scorcher by Laura Wexler and which focuses on the last mass lynching which occurred in the American Deep South, the one in the heartland of rural Georgia, precisely Walton County, Georgia on 25th July, 1946, less than a year after the Second World War. Wexler narrates the story of the four black sharecroppers who met their end ‘at the hand of person’s unknown’ when an undisclosed number of white men simply shot the blacks to death. The author concentrates on the way the evidence was collected in those eerie post war times and how the FBI was actually involved in the case, but how nothing came of their extensive investigations.

According to Sojourner Truth, women are just as equal to men and they should have just as many rights and privileges as any man. She draws a picture of her equality to men by professing her strength and hard-working efforts. Right away, Truth’s first goal is to establish a sense of identity and relationship with her audience. She describes events where she has faced discrimination as a black woman to trigger an emotional response. Truth juxtaposes the ideal way man says women should be treated with her own personal reality saying, “Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me the best place!” By pointing out the existence of hypocrisy, Truth invites the audience to realize possible injustices in their own lives, which should encourage them to want change and seek to take action against discriminators. Sojourner plays on the emotions of her audience to their attention and their willingness for change by shedding light on her own vulnerable experiences to which they can relate. With the successful use of rhetorical devices, persuasive techniques and Biblical allusions, Truth effectively persuades the audience that there is a difference in the treatment of women, especially in comparison to women of color.

America has always been labeled the “melting pot” and the “land of the free,” but when one is analyzing the history and social norms of the country, these statements are far from true. America has thrived through the oppression of minority groups and social pressure towards these groups to conform to the majority culture. In any historical sense, from the near extermination of Native Americans to the racial profiling of Muslim individuals after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, minority groups have always been the victims and have always been viewed as different if they do not assimilate into the “typical” American culture. Numerous works of literature have successfully displayed the struggles that minorities face when attempting to conform. Two works in particular, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Alexie Sherman and When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka, tell stories of two different minority groups: Native Americans living in the 21st century and Japanese-Americans during World War II. While these stories are separated by several decades, it is clear that American culture has not changed, as each story exemplifies how difficult it truly is to leave old cultural norms behind in order to be accepted by the majority.

The execution of John Brown brought mixed reactions from all over the country. This North Carolina paper criticizes the commercialization and celebration of John Brown that had been taking place in the north (390.) This reaction highlights the anger from the South at the celebration of this violence and also calls out the hypocrisy for the villainization of the southern states. These northern states who target them for upholding slavery are not only celebrating a violent act, but they’ve done plenty wrong themselves in the past. “It’s a pity they haven’t a witch or two to drown or burn, by way of variety” (390.) The paper remarks that the gallows should be completely be burned or else the capitalist heathens in the north will profit off the

During the nineteenth century, lynching was brought to America by British Isles and after the Civil War white Americans lynching African American increased. Causing and bringing fear into their world. In the Southern United States, lynching became a method used by the whites to terrorize the Blacks and to remain in control with white supremacy. The hatred and fear that was installed into the white people’s head had caused them to turn to the lynch law. The term lynching means to be put to death by hanging by a mob action without legal sanction. So many white people were supportive of lynching because it was a sign of power that the white people had. “Lynching of the black people was used frequently by white people, their is no specific detail of how many times they had done it, but lynching of black people has lasted from 1882 to 1968. Lynching also is in fact a inhuman combination of racism and sadism which was used to support the south’s caste system,’’(Gandhi).

Sojourner Truth's second contention utilizes the advance of rationale to persuade men regarding the advantages that will take after women's legal right. At the point when the woman get their full force of citizenship, they will act naturally adequate. Truth discusses the women's effectiveness. As the women must request that men modify the present social structure, if they accomplish this modification they will no more ask men for help since they will have the assets to work out issues all alone. Sojourner Truth guarantees, “When we get our rights, we shall not have to come to you for money, for then we shall have enough money of our own,” and consoles the men that women will keep on functioning as they have done, not getting to be careless,

In at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989, by Lucille Clifton, the purpose is to expose the injustice that has happened to the dead slaves. The slaves were buried without any gravestone and the women were not even counted when the owner of the plantation wrote down his inventory. This injustice is what pushed Lucille Clifton to write this poem. In the poem, Clifton attempts to draw attention to the fact that the honor was taken from the slaves, after their deaths, and Clifton tries to restore the honor that was stolen from the slaves. However, in Ain’t I a Woman the purpose was to expose the inequalities of an African American woman during Truth’s life. In Truth’s speech she mentions how other women “should be lifted over ditches, helped into carriages, and have the best place” but she gets none of this. Truth is comparing how other women are treated to how she is treated. This best shows Truth’s purpose of exposing the inequality between African American women and other groups of people. In both, the poem by Lucille Clifton and the speech by Sojourner Truth the purpose is to expose a certain

Remained hanging for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death. The boy struggling to breathe for half an hour just to make an example out him. This reminds me of the lynching of the african american people during the 18th and 19th century. Because hangings are a complicated process done by and executioner, lot of hangings were not quick and were messy if not done right. Many times the body was left hanging in the trees for days to teach people a lesson. Innocent people were killed throughout history, people in power controlled others using

While America may be known as the land of the free and the home of the brave the country also has a history of mistreating individuals. There is little discrepancy that the United States has overcome great struggles, however, some conflicts still remain today. Primarily, one issue that continues in this era is treating someone differently due to a difference in race, religion, ethnicity, or other traits that makes people unique. In response to these current issues developing in the United States Shepard Fairey created the ‘We the People’ series in order to show that no matter an individual’s gender, heritage, or upbringing everyone is an American. Fairey demonstrates this message in two ways. The first is by his use of color, in the ‘We the People’ series Fairey only uses the colors of the American flag which are red, white, and blue. The use of this color arrangement supports a sense of harmony and demonstrates that the United State is made up of various cultures. The second way the artwork exhibits this idea of unity is by using illustrations of not just all women, but also a Muslim, African American, and Latina. These features are important because these heritages are often looked at as minority’s that need to leave this country or people who are often dehumanized. In essence, the different artist choices put together create a coherent theme that it doesn’t matter where people come from, those who live in the United States should automatically be considered a full