Realism Project: Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth was an African American slave, who was a proponent of freedom for all the African American slaves and also for complete women's rights. Her speech, "And Ain't I a Woman" was addressed to the Ohio Women's Rights Convention, in 1851 (Truth, 370). In this speech, she gives her thoughts on not only the treatment of white women, but the treatment of African American women. "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 every helps me into carriages, or over mud-pudddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?" (Truth, 370) In this powerful speech, there are many characteristics of realism, especially in the topic and structure.

The topic of this speech is the rights of women in the United States of America, both white and African American. In society, women were considered inferior to men. They were acclaimed less intelligent than men, and were said that they were not as gifted as men. "They they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [Intellect, someone whispers.] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or Negroes rights?" (Truth, 370) That was the present state of society. Men were above woman, and the white American was above the African American. It was almost like a feudalist system where there were levels of social status, and unfortunately, at that time, African Americans and women were towards the bottom. The discussion of the speech about the society of that time puts the speech in the realism literary period category. Realism works of literature commonly discussed society, nature, government, and the American Dream.

Another characteristic of realism that is present in her speech to the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in 1851 was the structure of her speech . She starts out stating the problem. Then she gives facts stating that this is a real occurring problem. Then Sojourner Truth puts in her emotions to make it a very powerful and moving speech. "Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again!" (Truth, 370) The emotion behind this statement is not hidden. One can just imagine Sojourner Truth saying this with much passion. The thing that separates this statement from being classified as Romanticism is that it has facts to back it up; therefore, the speech falls under the structure of realism.

The hero in this speech is obviously the woman, of all races. Truth stated that the women, if working together, could change society and a social status for themselves (Truth, 370). It was the women who had to endure the oppression of the men and had to deal with his pompous and egotistical statements. The women who are portrayed as heros in her speech are every day women, making them every day heros. This status is very common to realism, because the hero in realism was someone who the average person could relate to--usually the average person. All of these qualities, the structure of the speech, the topic of the speech, and the heros of the speech make this excellent speech by Sojourner Truth a realism piece of literature.

Works Cited

Truth, Sojourner. "And Ain't I a Woman." Glencoe American Literature. comp. Wilhelm, Jeffery. McGraw Hill. Columbus, OH. 2009. pg. 370.