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Comparing Common Sense And Black Elk's Ain T I A Woman

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There are always people better than you and those less fortunate, those with paralleling views and those grasping their contradicting opinions towards your own. If one wishes to move mountains, a pebble must be moved first. In works like Thomas Paine’s, “Common Sense” from 1776, Sojourner Truth’s, “Ain’t I a Woman?” from 1851 and Black Elk’s, “The End of the Dream,” 1932, pebbles were tossed and boulders quaked with the actions and words, used and initiated, by Paine towards the separation of Great Britain and America, the words Truth used to shine a light on the inequality of the sex and race, and the actions taken by Elk to protect “the sacred tree” and his culture. “We may as well assert that because a child thrives on milk, that it is …show more content…

Born into slavery, Truth never became literate, but literacy does not determine intellect. Trust is appealing to the belongingness needs of her listeners by questioning the societal barriers used to deem whom is more important than someone else. She is as strong as any man, and says indirectly that she is as much a man as…a man. “I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well!” (Truth 128). By adding her ability ‘bear the lash,’ she is referring to the abuse she has received in her life of slavery. She has seen all of her children sold to slavery, but yet stays strong. She indirectly is referring herself and identifying herself as a “man.” “Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman!” (Truth 128). Women are the mothers to the male society. This idea run similar to Paine’s views about Great Briton being a monster rather than a mother and instead of belittling America, the colonies only seek independence and become Great Britain’s equal. Truth continues to diminish and question the false view that women are lesser than men. Truth is displaying that women are as involved in their Christ as much as men are and this idea of women being lesser to men is not justified in their (those who see women as lesser)

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