Sojourner Truth A'nt I a Woman

Sojourner Truth’s “Aren’t I a Woman?” speech still sends the same message in all there copies. The Version in the 50 essays book is the easiest to understand and read and it’s obviously a little diluted, but the reader can still get the big picture of the speech. The other two versions of Gage’s account of the convention contain much more detail and the original version of Truth’s speech. The extra details and original diction of Truth’s speech really enhance the overall story. The Pathos is stronger and the reader can create a vivid image of the convention at which the story takes place. The speech is written different but it’s not that hard to read or understand; it’s actually more exciting and fun to read than the speech written in the 50 essays book. One thing that stood out the most was that Sojourner’s speech had a different title in all three accounts. (Aren’t I a Woman?, Ain’t I A Woman?, A’nt I a Woman?)

Arent I woman response

Sojourner Truth was a powerful speaker and a very important African American women of the 1800s. In Truths “Aren’t I a woman” speech there is one part of rhetoric that just slaps the reader in the face. That part of rhetoric, is Pathos. In the speech Truth is clearly trying to make the audience feel a certain way and she does a marvelous job of persuading the audience.
Now Truths audience is already on her side but she wins them over even more with this strong speech. Right off the back Truth makes the audience feel sympathy towards her. At the beginning of the excerpt, Truth talks about how she isn’t treated like a lady and she goes on repeating “aren’t I a woman.” When someone is hurt so bad and they convey their massage to and huge audience, the audience is going to feel that same pain. When reading this, the reader will feel that same pain. The Pathos is Clearly established from the get go in Truth’s Speech and as it goes on she just adds more wood to this emotional fire. Her references to “women’s rights or Negroes’ rights” really gets her audience into the speech. The audience is riled up already and Truth feeds off the vibe. In the speech Truth uses examples of things to justify that women have rights. She even refers to God and Jesus. “Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him.” By saying this Truth feels that woman are actually higher than man. The pathos has changed; now the audience, well most of the audience, feels empowered and important. Not saying that they weren’t important from the beginning, its just that Truth helps these individuals realize that they are important and that they deserve to be treated better.
The strong emotions felt in Truth’s speech help her get the point across to her audience. Its was like she buttered them up and got them all rowdy and just threw the information at them. And this worked for Truth. The reader can determine that pathos is clearly evident and that it helps Truth transfer her message.

Slave Narratives

African American’s have had to fight and prove the white man wrong in just
about everything. In the end African Americans have succeeded at just about
everything except being president but that’s likely to change in the next few
months. The fight for African Americans right to express themselves through
literature was fought around the same time as the Civil War. Popular writings by
African Americans in the 19th century were slave narratives. William Craft,
Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs were early writers that wrote popular narratives. Rhetoric Devices were present in these stories. Well they weren’t present in the actual narrative but in the Prefaces that were written by white men. Strange that white men had a lot to do with the popular slave narratives. In the analysis of the two prefaces of Frederick Douglass’s Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Ethos was the rhetoric device that stood out the most in both pieces.

Before the ethos was completely established, the reader could infer that Wendell Phillips, the author of the first preface, was trying to attract a northern white male audience that knew slavery was inhumane but didn’t join anti-slavery groups that tried to fight for the cause. Wendell establishes his ethos and Douglass’s in this preface. Wendell starts the preface off by saying “My Dear Friend”. By starting his letter off like this he quickly establishes that he is a long time friend of Douglass. Wendell then starts to establish Douglass’s credibility, by noting the fact that he was a slave and that he is from the part of the United States where “slavery appears with its fairest features.” A few lines down Wendell gives Douglass’s narrative a big two thumbs when he says, “we have known you long, and can put the most entire confidence in your truth, candor, and sincerity. Everyone who has heard you speak has felt, and, I am confident, every one who reads your book will feel persuaded that you give them a fair specimen of the whole truth. No one-sided portrait.” Wendell has clearly established Douglass’s ethos and even a little pathos with his reference to feelings.

William Lloyd Garrison gives a writes a nice lengthy preface compared to Wendell. Garrison starts off with how he came to be associated with Douglass, just as Wendell established how he was friends with Douglass. Garrison meets Douglas at an anti-slavery convention Nantucket. Garrison proves that he is against slavery just like Douglass and this make him the perfect candidate to judge Douglass’s writings. Garrison tried to appeal to the same audience as Wendell, but Garrison may have tried to attract people in the south also. Garrison lets the readers know that Douglass was a fugitive slave and that in his many speeches Douglass proceeds “to narrate some of the facts in his own history as a slave”. Just like Wendell, Garrison helps establish Douglass’s ethos. Garrison praises and acknowledges Douglass’s ability to persuade and grasp the audience’s attention throughout the preface. Towards the end Garrison somewhat questions Douglass’s credibility by saying, “Mr. DOUGLASS has frankly disclosed the place of his birth, the names of those who claimed ownership in his body and soul, and the names also of those who committed the crimes which he has alleged against them. His statements, therefore, may easily be disproved, if they are untrue.” This was kind of puzzling that he said this, it gave the impression that maybe Garrison, deep down, didn’t trust or believe Douglass’s story. If this was true then maybe everything that was stated in the preface up to this point was just a big pile of crap. All of this may not have been a bowl of crap because at the end of Garrison’s preface he continues to praise Douglass’s narrative.

Both of these white men some to support Douglass and his attempt to let the public know what happens in the life of a slave. In reality Douglass needs the backing of white men because around this time White men are the only ones that have a say-so in pretty much all matters. It’s kind of bad that this black man had to depend on whites to get his story thru to other whites, but hey Wendell and Garrison did their job and help Establish the credibility or ethos that was needed to Help Douglass.

Self-Reliance Response

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self reliance is a very compelling piece of literature. Emerson’s use of rhetoric in this piece is amazing; this thing has just about everything in it. Emerson’s Self-Reliance deals with, well, being Self-Reliant. . By reading Self Reliance, one can determine it was written for males, mainly adults and those entering manhood. One can infer this throw Emerson’s repetition of the words ‘his’, ‘he’, ‘man’ and ‘men’ .The purpose of Self-Reliance, is to help readers realize that they need to think for themselves and trust themselves. In the Emerson’s essay he says, “ Man is timid and apologetic he is no longer upright; he dares not say ‘I think’, ‘I am’, but quotes some sage.” This statement supports the previous stated purpose of Self Reliance. Emerson also establishes Ethos by quoting phrases and by referring to people whose credibility is already firmly
The authors strong use of diction helps the reader to determine the time at which the essay was written and the author’s pathos. The spelling of certain words help the reader understand when this piece was written. Words like thee, thou, and thy let the reader know that this was written before the 2oth century. The spelling of words also helped. When common words like today, parlor, and tomorrow are spelled like to-day, parlour, and to-morrow, the reader will realize that this was written long ago. Self Reliance seems to sound like something that was intended to empower its audience. Throughout the text, there are many phrases and words that give the reader the sense that this piece of literature was meant to fire up or motivate them.
The author’s use of figurative language really stands out in Self Reliance. His use of metaphors, similes, analogies, etc. is unbelievable. At the beginning Emerson quotes Epilogue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Honest Man's Fortune, the quote reads,
"Ne te quaesiveris extra."
"Man is his own star; and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man,
Commands all light, all influence, all fate;
Nothing to him falls early or too late.
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still."
“Man is his own star, and the soul that can Render an honest and perfect man.”, that deep, that’s really deep. Emerson used a lot of personification in Self Reliance. “malice and vanity wear the coat of philanthropy”, “truth is handsomer than affection and love”, “Nature is not slow to equip us in prison-uniform”, “prayer looks abroad and ask for some…”. The best use of figurative language was when Emerson was talking about society. “Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other…. it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is Christianized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration.” “Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not.” This metaphor is deep, and its meaning it is important. There were other metaphors in Self Reliance; “Rage is decorous and prudent”, “virtues are penances”, “envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide”. There is some much figurative language in Emerson’s writing that is somewhat hard to point out just a few good ones because the whole writing is good.
As stated before Rhetoric is clearly evident in Emerson’s work, but some parts of rhetoric stand out more than others. Self Reliance is a Rhetoric gol mine just like Anne Bradstreets poems. His writings prove that the use of rhetoric is important to help one get his or her point across.