Aren’t I a Woman?--Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth’s speech, while short, was mainly composed of rhetorical devices. Her body language throughout helped the listeners to visualize her words better, as most public speakers know. Just by skimming over the speech for the first time, I realized that it was going to be a powerful one.

Truth started out by using a rhetorical question for the title of her speech. It is unclear whether she gave it that title, or if it was chosen for her by publishers, but it seems to fit. Truth asks that question throughout; Four times to be exact. That number may not seem like a lot, but it is if you look at the length of her speech.

The rhetorical question “Aren’t I a Woman?” was added after phrases, in sequence. That would also make it an epistrophe. For example, “…-and aren’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man (when I could get it), and bear the lash as well- and aren’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children and seen them almost all sold off into slavery, and cried out with a mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard- and aren’t I a woman?”

That last quote brings me to another scheme and trope, polysyndeton. “Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles or gives me any best place, and aren’t I a woman? I have plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me- and aren’t I a woman?” At that point of her speech, she uses many conjunctions, like “and” as well as “or.”

Truth’s experiences explain her use of ethos. Ethos is used to establish the speaker or writer’s credentials and to provide proof that they have enough experience with that topic. She spoke of being demeaned and underestimated because she was an African-American woman. “That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles…” Truth spoke of her experiences with sexism and racism, which would mean to me that she is very knowledgeable in those subjects.

As I said before, Truth set a very powerful tone. The environment (thunder and lightning) and her gestures also helped. To me, her sentence structure seems to vary. Some parts are more fluent than others, but that is the result of using many conjunctions in some areas, but not in others. "Aren't I a Woman" was very moving and I can see why Truth’s speech was published and made famous.