Sojourner Truth's, Aren't I a Woman?

1.) Sojourner Truth is responding to objections. The people who object to black woman being worth something and actually considered a woman. The many references to religion suggest that she is speaking to a large group or congregation. She is responding to an argument about women’s rights.
2.) Sojourner’s arguments are examples of the difference between strong black women and those that look like her against privileged people and men. She provides examples of these comparisons. “I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could heard me- and aren’t I a woman? I could work as much as a man (when I get it), and bear the lash as well- and aren’t I a woman?” (Cohen 423).
4.) My first perception of Truth would be shock. A woman like this, who has encountered so much, can speak like this? And the fact that she voices her opinions would have shocked me as well. How could she do something like that? But after I got over the initial shock I would be captivated by her powerful voice and views that she made. I would also be proud that someone like her was representing me.

Aren’t I a Woman?
You must command and demand what you want now a days to see change. That is exactly what Sojourner Truth did in her speech. She became powerful in little ways. In the passage “Aren’t I a Woman?” Sojourner Truth expressed her opinions on woman’s rights using pathos, she achieved this by her tone, actions, and reference to religion. Through this speech Sojourner Truth conveyed strength, courage, and drive.
Sojourner Truth’s tone established pathos simply but the fullest. All she simply did was by “raising herself to her full height and her voice to a pitch like rolling thunder” (Cohen 423). If you imagine someone raising their voice, they are demanding you to listen to what they have to say. This means that they feel that what they have to say is very important and needs to be said. She raises her voice like the pitch of rolling thunder. Thunder is a very deep, loud, powerful sound. For someone to sound like that, especially a woman should automatically attract your attention. Then she goes on to exclaim her statements. “Look at me! Look at my arm! (And she bared her right arm to the shoulder, showing her tremendous muscular power).” (Cohen 423). She commands you to look at her as to prove her point. “Rolling thunder could not have stilled that crowd as did those deep, wonderful tones, as she stood there with outstretched arms and eye of fire” (Cohen 424) . Once again the rolling thunder is her voice, her commanding voice. This appeals to yours sense and you can hear her getting louder and more passionate about it. You can tell just from this quote that she is very serious. You can hear the passion in her voice and in her actions. The fact that her actions were included in the passage gives it more meaning, more depth, and more clarity. As the reader can clearly picture what she is doing but imagine what the rest of the scene looks like.
Another way that Truth establishes pathos in this passage is by her use of religious references. She clever connects the male and female relationship to her argument. She begins this by pointing out the fact that Christ was not woman but a man who is worshipped. If Christ was a woman instead, would she have had the same amount of respect as the male Christ received? “Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him.” It was the work of a woman who made this great man. So if it wasn’t for this woman there would be no Christ for them to worship. If it were not for a woman none of them would be there. So why are they treating them like they are nothing. Like men could run the world without women, which is impossible. Women are essential and remarkable. With another reference to religion which was the back bone to the government in this timeframe, Truth refers to the story of Adam and Eve. “If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down, all alone, these together, ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again; and now they are asking to do it, the men better let them.” (Cohen 424). Eve was so powerful that she could change the plan of the world, a woman; it would take another woman to change back once again. We are jus that powerful and that is the point to the message that woman are great and we do not need to be put down or submissive to the men because with out us they have absolutely nothing.