Sojourner Truth Rhetorical Analysis free essay sample

Audience appeals and Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth in her speech Ain’t I a Women addresses the issues of women’s rights and racial inequalities at a Women’s convention in 1851. Truth’s purpose is to convey that women and blacks are equaled to white men and that they do not need to be viewed as less. She adopts a conversational tone to appeal to personal beliefs in her anti-slavery listeners. Truth uses appeals to maternal emotions, rhetorical questions, and allusions to the bible to aid her in making a point. The purpose of the convention Truth was attending was to address the rights of women. Truth begins her speech as if she were a mother telling a story. She appeals to pathos, specifically to the maternal emotions of women in the audience. Truth shares her story of the hardships of slavery, labor, and loss. She describes motherly emotions when she says â€Å"I have borne thirteen children† and after watching them being sold to slavery she â€Å"cried out with my mothers’ grief. We will write a custom essay sample on Sojourner Truth Rhetorical Analysis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This shows how Truth had to sacrifice multiple things including her children because of her ethnicity. Throughout the speech Truth asserts her femininity by repeating the phrase â€Å"Ain’t I a woman†. This strategy aides Truth in having a vast majority of her female audience identify with her on some level. Truth poses several rhetorical questions throughout her speech. Through these questions she attempts to get the point that women are important across. Truth poses the question â€Å"where did your Christ come from? † The answer to this is obvious to Truth as well as her audience but she asks it anyways because she wants to emphasize the answer. Later on Truth answers this question by saying â€Å"From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with him. † By providing her audience with the answer to the question Truth is successful in ensuring her message is portrayed. The more noticeable use of rhetorical questions is when Truth asks â€Å"Ain’t I a woman? This question emphasizes the obvious. Of course Sojourner Truth is a woman; but why is she not viewed as one? Truth adds in these rhetorical questions to stress the importance of the answers to the audience. Truth ends her speech by making an allusion to the bible. This helps her appeal to logos. Truth makes a reference to the story of Adam and Eve, saying that since Eve â€Å"was strong enough to turn the world upside down,† then â€Å"These women â€Å"ought to be able to turn it back. Many of the people listening to Truth’s speech believed the bible to be a credible source and were familiar with this story. Those who believed couldn’t deny that Truth made a valid point. The speech Sojourner Turner delivered at a women’s convention in Akron, Ohio was influential in the abolition movement. Through the use of maternal appeals, rhetorical questions, and biblical allusions Sojourner Truth is able to get her point across. Her audience gets a clear understanding of her stance on women’s right and racial inequalities.