In 1851, a Women's Rights conference was held in Akron. One person attending was Sojourner Truth, an older African American woman who had been emancipated from slavery. At the meeting, several men had spoken against women's rights, suggesting that women were weak and lacking in intellect. They used Biblical arguments such as the fact that Christ was a man and Eve was a woman.
A number of people did not want Truth to speak because they thought that her speech would associate the women's movement with the abolitionist movement. Nevertheless, she was given the floor.
The speech she gave is called "Ain't I a Woman," and is called so because of the main rhetorical device Sojourner Truth used, conduplicatio, which is the repetition of a word or phrase. In her speech, she describes things she has done that challenge the idea that women are weak, and after each sentence, she said, "and ain't I a woman?"
Conduplicatio can be a very powerful device when used wisely in a speech. One hundred and twelve years after Sojourner Truth made her speech, an African American preacher used conduplicatio, which is how we remember his speech: "I have a dream."
https://books.google.com/books?id=16rQl2WT_-gC&pg=PA18
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/sojtruth-woman.asp
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
What is the main rhetorical device of "Ain't I a Woman" by Sojourner Truth?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Summarize the major research findings of "Toward an experimental ecology of human development."
Based on findings of prior research, the author, Bronfenbrenner proposes that methods for natural observation research have been applied in ...
-
One way to support this thesis is to explain how these great men changed the world. Indeed, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) was the quintes...
-
At the most basic level, thunderstorms and blizzards are specific weather phenomena that occur most frequently within particular seasonal cl...
-
x=4cost y=2sint First, take the derivative of x and y with respect to t. dx/dt=-4sint dy/dt=2cost Then, determine the first derivative dy/dx...
-
Ethno-nationalism is defined as "advocacy of or support for the political interests of a particular ethnic group, especially its nation...
-
Both boys are very charismatic and use their charisma to persuade others to follow them. The key difference of course is that Ralph uses his...
-
Find the indefinite integral $\displaystyle \int \sec^4 \left( \frac{x}{2} \right) dx$. Illustrate by graphing both the integrand and its an...
-
The most basic attitude difference between Mr. Otis and Lord Canterville is their attitude toward the ghost. The attitude difference start...
No comments:
Post a Comment