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Failure Of Society In The Book And Film Roots By Alex Haley

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Society is a community, nation, or broad grouping of people having common traditions, institutions, and collective activities and interests. Throughout history societies have succeeded and also failed because the society either failed to enact civility or was able to. American society can be seen as both successful and as a failure because society itself is intact but throughout history it has struggled to successfully address and maintain tolerance among its citizens. This struggle is seen in the book and film Roots by Alex Haley as well as poems and speeches made throughout history. Literature uses stories, poems, speeches, and video to respond to both the fallibility of society and the good values that society presents to the world; examples …show more content…

The novel Roots spans many different time periods all responding differently to the period of time it takes place in, revealing how American society was for African Americans throughout early US history. Throughout the 1800s mostly the early 1800s the slave trade dominated American society in the south because slavery brought more profit for there plantations creating a society dependent of slavery. In Roots Kunta Kinte, a native mandinka from Africa, was kidnapped from his village and forced on a ship taking him into slavery in the United States. In chapter 40 he has arrived in America and in this chapter Alex Haley describes the horrors of how slave-traders beat and tortured the new slaves. Kunta is victim of this torture and after the torture he layed “numbly, in a kind of stupor…[and] it came into his mind that when they finally ate his flesh and sucked the bones, his spirit would already have escaped to Allah.When he arrived he was praying silently when barking shouts from the chief toubob and his big helper made him …show more content…

Given that women had not yet gained the right to vote, this negative value of contemporary American society sparked a different, more protesting style of literature, as seen in speeches such as Sojourner Truth's Ain't I A Woman. Truth’s speech was also altered by Frances Gage, who changed it to make it seem more authentic to the audience. In her attempt to authenticate the speech to the public, she ended up changing the speech so much that she created a stereotypical image of Sojourner Truth. Throughout Truth’s original speech she states “Through God who created him and woman who bore him. Man, where is your part” (Truth 1851)? This powerful connection demonstrates how society has influenced her speech because this connection to religion and god is bold, and even though it is true, it is controversial. This controversy shows a protesting style of literature because she is using this example to demonstrate why women deserve equal rights and how men are no greater than women. Not only does society influence her writing style, but when Gage rewrote her speech, she tried to make it more "relevant" or authentic by altering the meaning and words throughout the speech. Gage rewrote the same quotation above as, “From God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him” (Truth 1851). This adaptation exemplifies how literature can be affected by society because Gage

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To persuade the thought of a fresh civilization, Sojourner Truth's applies repetition of the rhetorical question "Ain't I a woman? " This proposal jabs at men's cruel demeanor and strengthens the call to action for women. The orator recites this question multiple times to forge an influential stance and to stress her message that women are as capable as men. In response, the advocated crowd reflects on Truth's demand and displays a call to action against the prejudice society.

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(Grimke, 191) Three words, shouted over the din outside, are an especially effective way to turn listeners’ heads because they focus on a group most previous speakers - at that convention and in the entire abolitionist movement - had left behind. Grimke’s demand for action did not simply include women but was exclusively addressed to them, which was an unexpected and somewhat shocking choice to an audience who expected male-oriented speeches. This gains the interest of various distracted listeners through shock factor and engages women specifically through the promise of advice for fighting slavery

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“I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon” (Truth). Right off the bat she introduces her intention of finding harmony among everyone men, women, blacks, whites. Finally she ends the speech with a powerful tool for inspiring her audience to act on this topic of inequality, saying “ if the first women 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). Saying that if these women stand together for what they believe, for what they feel is right they cannot fail.

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Has someone ever proved you wrong on your first impression of him or her? Imagine that small kid in the back of class that never spoke a whisper, you would never imagine that he or she would speak on all of the things they observed in their silence. That is what sojourner truth did with the speech she recited at the women’s right convention in 1851. Truth did not just write down her feelings and thoughts on a pad without planning or coordination. Truth lied this speech out with rhetorical devices to create multiple effects effect on the audience using pathos, ethos, allusions, etc.

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On May 29, 1851, Sojourner Truth delivered a speech at a women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio. She delivers this speech to attack arguments made by clergymen against women's rights. Sojourner Truth uses repetition and loaded words to make her point clear and effective, and to argue against the belief that women are inferior to men. Her use of rhetorical devices plays a big role in why her speech made such a big effect on her audience and the role it played in the fight for women's rights. Truth uses repetition when she repeats the rhetorical question, "ain't I a woman?

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When women, because they are women, are hunted down through the cities of New York and New Orleans; when they are dragged from their houses and hung upon lamp-posts; when their children are torn from their arms, and their brains dashed out upon the pavement; when they are objects of insult and outrage at every turn; when they are in danger of having their homes burnt down over their heads; when their children are not allowed to enter schools; then they will have an urgency to obtain the ballot equal to our own.” (Douglass) Beside that, Douglass believed that standing for women’s right is act of decency. “in respect to political rights, we hold woman to be justly entitled to all we claim for man. We go farther, and express our conviction that all political rights which it is expedient for man to exercise, it is equally so for women. All that distinguishes man as an intelligent and accountable being, is equally true of woman;

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In 1851, a recognized abolitionist, Sojourner Truth spoke to the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio that would be remembered for years following due to its startling bareness and authenticity. Truth spoke about the injustice and struggles she has gone through as not only a woman, but as a black woman. She used many anecdotes and religious references to convey and connect with her audience. In her speech, Ain’t I A Woman, Sojourner Truth utilizes rhetorical strategies, religious references, and forms of figurative language to connect with her audience effectively to assist in overcoming gender and race discrimination.

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