Sunday, October 26, 2008

Sojourner Truth Ain't I a Woman Comparison

The 50 Essays book drastically changed Sojourner Truth's Ain't I a Woman speech. In the original text, Truth spoke strongly and shamelessly about what she felt was quite an issue. Although she was noticeably uneducated, it didn't take away from the fact that it was an extraordinarily powerful speech. It in fact strengthened her speech and gave it validity. Sojourner Truth was an African-American woman who didn’t get the privileges she felt that she deserved. The audience of the original text could discover much about her simply by listening to or reading the speech. The changes that the 50 Essays book made changed a lot about the speech. It took away from the strength and validity, because she was speaking from the heart and the only way she knew how. The audience of the edited speech must listen (or read) intently to even discern her ethnicity, where in the original text it was obvious. The book almost seems ashamed of her heritage in that they did not want to include her original speech.

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