Rhetorical Analysis Of Aren T I A Woman

Rhetorical Analysis Essay: “Aren’t I a Woman?” Sojourner Truth’s “Aren’t I a Woman,” was not an essay, rather it was a speech given during a women’s rights convention in 1851, while slavery was still in place, and most African-American women like her were enslaved. She speaks of how she, as a woman, is treated differently from her white, female counterparts, while also questioning why she and other women are treated differently from men. While she delivers the speech to an audience at a women’s convention, she does not specify an audience, however, it is clear that she wants to speak to white males and other groups of people who are against women’s rights (such as the people in the audience that she singles out). She delivers this speech in
In lines 14 through 17 she repeats the phrase, “aren’t I a woman?” in various complex sentences (423). She uses this as she describes the ways in which she is either equal to a man, or mistreated because she is a woman. She uses this technique in order to show the ways in which women are equal, but repeats that “aren’t I a woman” to reiterate that she will be continually mistreated, and for no good reason. For instance, Truth states that she can “bear the lash,” work, and eat as much as a man, before she says, “aren’t I a woman?”She does this in order to question the notion that men are more deserving of their rights than women are. Also, when addressing a minister in the audience, she reiterates the phrase, “Where did your Christ come from?” as he believes that because Jesus was a man, men deserve more rights (424). She repeats this due to the sheer awe the minister was in when she asks for the first time; he was unable to answer her question (the answer was God and a woman). This repetition gives even more power to Truth as even though she is uneducated, she is able to answer a question that a minister cannot. So not only does the fact that the most powerful being to ever exist came from a woman help Truth’s argument, but the fact that she was able to refute the argument of a minister without receiving a rebuttal helps her argument as well. Through the use of repetition, Truth
Each device is used to explain a different point in her argument. The use of the repetition describes multiple situations in which she has the abilities of a man, yet is mistreated. This ties in with her allusion to the Bible, where she shows a situation in which a man has no power. She also uses imagery, which can put a clear image into the readers head of just how terrible the injustices that she faced were, and how she was able to endure them just as well as a man could. In her speech, Truth’s message is clearly expressed: men have been placed on a pedestal by society, and it is time for society to challenge the notion that they deserve to be placed higher in society than