Question

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 ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman?

Look at me! Look at my arm! I could have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man— when I could get it — and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen them most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I woman?

Read the above lines and discuss the main idea Truth wants to convey in these lines.

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

The main idea that Sojourner Truth wants to convey in these lines is that women are just as capable and deserving of respect and equal treatment as men, despite the prevalent beliefs and prejudices of her time.

She uses a rhetorical question, "And ain't I a woman?", to challenge the stereotype that women are weak and helpless and therefore require special treatment from men. Truth points out that she, as an African American woman, has never been treated with the deference and respect that men claim women deserve.

Truth then goes on to present evidence of her own strength and resilience, challenging the notion that women are somehow physically or emotionally inferior to men. She describes how she could plow and work as hard as any man, and even bear the same punishments and lashings that men could.

Furthermore, she highlights the tremendous hardships and suffering that she has endured as an enslaved woman and mother, and the lack of support or recognition she received from anyone except for her faith in Jesus.

Overall, Truth's main message in these lines is that women, regardless of their race or social status, are just as capable, deserving, and worthy of respect and equal treatment as men. Her powerful rhetoric and personal experiences serve to challenge and undermine the entrenched gender and racial biases of her time.