The trouble with words is that they stand as place-holders in a language, attempting to express the feelings and opinions of the speaker or writer. With this in mind, words, and the structure of those words, can create meanings deeper than one truly imagines them to be. Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist, expressed his opinion on language in terms of how words relate and interact with each other. He explains the arbitrariness of words and how there only exists conventional relationships between words and their meanings, but then also mentions the dichotomy that defines what a word means by describing what it is not (Palmer 20). Sojourner Truth, an African American abolitionist and women’s rights advocate, touched upon these expressions of words and their meaning in her infamous speech “Aren’t I a Woman” delivered at the Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. Within this speech, though, she strategically uses language as a means to influence the listeners and sway them towards her cause. In Truth’s “Aren’t I a Woman” speech, she emphasizes how language constructs reality through her manipulation of the conventional idea behind the word “woman” and by explaining the dichotomy that exists between the two genders and similar relationship that exists between the two races.
Saussure agreed with Plato who said that words do not name things in the world simply because there are too many things. It would be far too difficult to differentiate one thing from another and so instead words stand as ways to name concepts or ideas. Because of this idea, language is a tool used to construct reality and influence the way in which one views a particular concept or idea. With this in mind, Saussure explained his belief on the arbitrariness...
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...ture of language and the words that are chosen to describe an idea are touched upon in Truth’s argument for both abolition and feminism. Since there is no finite meaning to a word, a definition of something can be altered and manipulated from person to person or society to society. Following this logic, titles given to people are in reality nothing but placeholders attempting to describe something that really cannot be described. Cross-culturally, especially, a word is just a word and cannot be truly understood in all languages. With this in mind, can there ever not exist a language barrier? All words are constantly changing their meaning by having ideas and concepts (the signified) added to them. The signifier, therefore, is meaningless because the signified is always changing. And if the signified is always changing, then the sign, or the word, is meaningless too.
Deborah Gray White was one of the first persons to vigorously attempt to examine the abounding trials and tribulations that the slave women in the south were faced with. Mrs. White used her background skills acquired from participating in the Board of Governors Professor of History and Professor of Women 's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University to research the abundance of stories that she could gather insight from. It was during her studies that she pulled her title from the famous Ain’t I A Woman speech given by Sojourner Truth. In order to accurately report the discriminations that these women endured, White had to research whether the “stories” she was writing about were true or not.
...n American female writers are much more popular today than their male counterparts. Perhaps Sojourner Truth should not have posed the question, "Ain't I a Woman," because that still implies that the only move up for African American women is from a double minority to a single minority (Lauter 2049). Perhaps the real question is-Ain't I a Human?
In the speech ‘Ain’t I a Woman’, she mentions she has no rights as an African American woman. She hears how “women should be treated” and taken care of
Deborah Gray Whites Ar’n’t I a Woman? Explores what it was like to be a female slave. Deborah Gray White provides numerous detailed accounts and anecdotes throughout the book. The whole book seeks to answer the question asked by African American slaves, Ar’n’t I a Woman? In Sojourner Truths speech held in 1851 in Akron, Ohio at the women’s rights convention, she explains her own experience with being a female slave in the plantation south. She, like most black women of the time, plowed, planted and hoed, did as much work as a man, endured the brutal punishment meted out by slaveholders and their overseers, and also fulfilled her ordained role of motherhood.” Moreover, women were still seen as inferior to men. Women were subjected to worse treatment than that of men and this book proves to describe the many ways that women in particular were mistreated. This books main purpose is to educate its readers about the onerous burdens that females suffered directly resulting from slavery. Ar’n’t I a woman was the first book of its kind to accurately assess the females’ perspective of slavery.
In her opinion, white preachers had no idea of how to preach about such trials. Truth was one of America’s first black women to tackle intersectionality before the proper term was even coined more that 100 years later. She challenged, not only white supremacy and slavery as a whole but she also challenged all male abolitionists, white or black. Awareness of the plight of the Black woman was necessary and through Truth’s love for Jesus Christ and her on-fire preaching, she was also able to sprinkle in her intolerance for slavery. Not only did Sojourner Truth forge her way through the abolitionist movement but she also impacted the feminist movement as well. She claimed that the feminist movements in America marginalized Black women and at a women’s suffrage convention, she asked, “Aren’t I a
In the speech, "Ain't I a Woman?" Sojourner Truth gives examples of how she was robbed of womanhood and the amazing gift of motherhood. As a slave in the late 1700's to early 1800's, Truth is used for manual labor. Many people would expect Truth has gained others respect due to her unyielding work as a slave, but in reality all she wants is the respect of being a mother. The time period in which this speech is given gives Sojourner Truth the opportunity to explain her relations with white men and women and testify to the unequal treatment she has received. During Truth's speech she demands men's respect by alluding to nasty comments they recite throughout her speech and addressing these misconceptions. Although times have changed and women
Charles Whitaker questions the fact, “Is this the Alice Walker, the alleged fire-breathing feminist, or "womanist" (to use her term) whose Pulitzer Prize Winning novel, The Color Purple, has, for many, come to symbolize Black male bashing at its worst? This novel that Walker has created is certainly a masterpiece, but as Whitaker shows with his questioning, this novel strikes immense amounts controversy among it’s readers and leaves most confused and concerned about Walker's intentions. On a more important note, it is important to consider the fact that this book has been banned all over the country by various schools and libraries due to its controversy. See, the problems with humans is that when they confront something they don’t understand or don’t agree with, the first thing they do is simply remove it. Very often does humanity take the effort to understand the things they don’t agree with, but quite often those ideas are crucial in our race's
Ar’n’t I a Woman? Written by, Deborah Gray White shows the trials and hardships that African American Women faced during the years of the infamous plantations up to the civil war. In this book White describes how the images of “Jezebel” and the “Mammy” and how they were the most vulnerable group with the least amount of formal power in Antebellum America. She compares the life of men and women in the slave society, and how truly different they were. The roles of women are shown through the slaves’ life cycle, family life, slave society networks, and the civil war. Each of these various aspects of life are discussed very vividly in the book, and serve purpose in showing how African American women were treated so unjustly not only because of their skin color but the fact that they were women, therefore they were the most discriminated against in Antebellum America. Though they were discriminated against their nature proved them to not be submissive and subordinate in all aspects.
Sojourner Truth, an African American woman and former slave, fights a double war within winning her rights. The fact that Truth is an African American female put an addition strain on her journey. Truth traveled thousands of miles giving speeches against slavery and for women’s rights. In 1851, Truth gave her famous speech, “Ain’t I a Woman” at the Women’s Convention. In her speech, she attacked the idea of women and blacks being inferior. Truth used her personal experiences to describe the discrimination she faced as a black, ex-slave woman. Truth’s main objective through her speech was to show how she is equal to any man. She declared,
...women has escalated to an all-time high. Hillary Clinton’s speech “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” targets this growing problem and by portraying a purpose, style and language, and different appeals to the audience effectively.
Sojourner Truth’s speech entitled “Ain’t I A Woman?” became popular for its honest and raw confrontation on the injustices she experienced both as a woman and an African-American. The speech was given during a women’s rights convention held in Akron, Ohio in May 1851 and addressed many women’s rights activists present (Marable and Mullings, 66). Sojourner began her speech by pointing out the irrational expectations men have of women and contrasting them to her own experiences. She exclaims that a man in the corner claims women “needs to be helped into carriages and lifted ober ditches or to hab de best place everywhar,” yet no one extends that help to her (67). This is followed by her rhetorically asking “and ain’t I a woman?” (67) Here, Sojourner is calling out the social construction of gender difference that men use in order to subordinate women.
Angelina Grimke and Sojourner Truth were both prominent American civil rights activists of the 19th century who focused on the abolition of slavery and women’s rights issues, respectively. While both of these women challenged the societal beliefs of the United States at the time regarding these civil rights issues, the rhetorical strategies used by each of these women to not only illustrate their respective arguments but also to raise social awareness of these issues was approached in very different fashions. Angelina Grimke promoted the use of white middle-class women’s positions in the household to try to influence the decision makers, or men, around them. On the other hand, Sojourner Truth, a former slave turned women’s rights activist,
Deborah Gray White’s Ar’n’t I a Woman? details the grueling experiences of the African American female slaves on Southern plantations. White resented the fact that African American women were nearly invisible throughout historical text, because many historians failed to see them as important contributors to America’s social, economic, or political development (3). Despite limited historical sources, she was determined to establish the African American woman as an intricate part of American history, and thus, White first published her novel in 1985. However, the novel has since been revised to include newly revealed sources that have been worked into the novel. Ar’n’t I a Woman? presents African American females’ struggle with race and gender through the years of slavery and Reconstruction. The novel also depicts the courage behind the female slave resistance to the sexual, racial, and psychological subjugation they faced at the hands of slave masters and their wives. The study argues that “slave women were not submissive, subordinate, or prudish and that they were not expected to be (22).” Essentially, White declares the unique and complex nature of the prejudices endured by African American females, and contends that the oppression of their community were unlike those of the black male or white female communities.
Both the short story “The Story of an Hour” (1894), by Kate Chopin, and the historical document “Ain’t I a Woman?” (1851), by Sojourner Truth represent the changing popular idea of democracy from the time periods the works were written in. Kate Chopin’s piece focuses on the oppression of women, and gave readers from that time an idea on what it was like being a woman and how democracy was centered on men rather than both men and women. For most of the story, the main character, Louise Mallard, weeps over the loss of her husband, until she recognizes a new feeling “approaching to possess her, and she tries to beat it back with her will.” When she gave into the new feeling, she repeats “free”
The 19th century was a time of great social change in the United States as reflected by the abolitionist movement and the women’s suffrage movement. Two very influential women leaders were Angelina Grimke and Sojourner Truth. Grimke was born a Southern, upper class white woman. She moved to the North as a young woman, grew involved in abolitionism and women’s rights, and became known for her writing, particularly “Letters to Catherine Beecher”. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree; she escaped to freedom, changed her name, and became an active speaker on behalf of both the abolition and women’s rights movements. Truth’s most famous speech is “Ain’t I a Woman?”. While both Grimke and Truth use a personal, conversational tone to communicate their ideas, Grimke relies primarily on logical arguments and Truth makes a more emotional appeal through the use of literary strategies and speech.