Talitha L. Leflouria discusses and describes her Grandma Leola of Troup County, Georgia. Initially, Leflouria informs the reader that she would spend most of Saturdays at her great-grandparents home. Grandma Leola was renowned for efficiencies at various skills related to traditional country living in the South during the 20th century. She also describes her mother as someone that was loving, inviting, and rugged around the edges too. Grandma Leola would share stories to Leflouria about her life, and sometimes she would even tell her about life in the Rough Edge.
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story about Melinda Sordino. Melinda was an incoming freshman at Merryweather High, and was entering ninth grade with no friends. During the first school assembly, the new girl in town, Heather, introduced herself to Melinda, sparking somewhat of a friendship. Melinda also came across her ex-best friend, Rachel. Rachel had mouthed the words “I hate you” to Melinda, even though all she wanted to do was to tell Rachel what really happened at the infamous summer party.
Attempting to break free of social constructions and otherness, Rochelle Brock delves into deep inquiry for the advancement of her pedagogy. Brock utilizes an interesting style of writing where she inserts an explanation, through a quote or internal dialogue, about the situation at hand; whether it be with her students or with the god to whom she was seeking guidance, Oshun. Dissecting the conversations inside her own head and those of the four students invited over for dialogue on the matter, she is able to examine the difference in rhetorical strategies used to suppress others and to combat otherness. The chapter, “Sista to Sista to Sista,” takes up a decent portion of the book and revolves around dialogue between Brock and four students regarding their experiences as Black women.
In Sojourner Truth’s speech that she delivered at the Women’s Convention of 1851, she addresses the inequalities that women and blacks met at that time in America. I will focus on the way Sojourner uses own experiences to get an emotional acknowledgment from her audience, correlating with them as both mothers and women. She also uses repetition and rhetorical questions to rebut opposing cases for gender equality. Sojourner makes biblical references during the speech to connect with her Christian audience and bring her audiences to connect on a more personal level. I will analyze the way Garnet and Sojourner uses rhetorical strategies to achieve a fruitful and powerful delivery of their message and features they share with Garnets speech as
“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.
Amanda Gorman is a 26-year-old American poet and activist. Gorman grew up with a speech impediment, influencing her to write poetry as a way to express herself. Rather than seeing her impediment as something slowing her down, she learned to view it as a superpower. Her inauguration poem “The Hill We Climb” speaks on the Black Lives Matter movement, the losses of the COVID-19 pandemic, and equality in the US. She delivers the idea that a country shouldn’t strive for perfection, but rather seek improvement.
The title of the book is Speak. Speak, was written and published in 1999. The novel was written by Laurie Halse Anderson. Laurie Halse Anderson was born and is from Potsdam New York.
Octavia Butler is an Afrofuturist, science fiction author who writes many dystopian stories that allude to questions about gender, social structures, and an individual’s ability to control her body and sexuality. When people think of speculative and science fiction they tend to think of nerdy white men writing stories about space and light sabers, but Octavia Butler challenges this stereotype herself by being one of the few African American women in this genre. In Octavia Butler’s speculative fiction short story “Speech Sounds” there is a reversal of gender roles and a strong idea of feminism that is portrayed through the main character Rye. There is also the use of simile and metaphor to help point out flaws in the social structure of the story and the world of the reader.
A Young Woman’s Voice in a Society That Devalues Femininity In the article “Young Women Shouldn’t Have to Talk Like Men to Be Taken Seriously,” Marybeth Seitz-Brown argues that women should not have to change their voices to be heard by a society that constantly devalues femininity. Seitz-Brown uses three effective rhetorical devices to effectively prove her argument: her awareness of the rhetorical situation, her stylistic choices, and the arrangement of her article. Seitz-Brown’s awareness of the rhetorical situation enhances her argument by tastefully adding to the feminist discourse at the time. Her target audience is all of American society because, at the end of the article, she urges that “we can do better than that” (Seitz-Brown).
The readers of this piece can sense the anger expressed her about the views of the black community and that first line shows that this piece will continue to be as hard hitting as the beginning lines. Another powerful line in the same piece would be a line that talks about being a black woman is not a misfortune on her behalf and is calling out the people who view the black community as
Several things she mentions makes me think to myself that we (society) truly need to change our ways of thinking. Society is quick to judge; Leong, a woman of colour, is thought to be white on the phone and a man in real life because of the clothes she wears and her haircut. She chooses the clothes she wears out of comfort, however, society takes them as gender signifiers (352). The choices we make in presenting ourselves shouldn’t lead to assumptions. I remember I once told my friend I wanted to cut my hair short and he replied “are you a lesbian?”
Growing up, we were taught to look at the world in juxtaposition. This outlook forces us to order things such as race, sex, and socioeconomic status in categorical or hierarchical terms. In order to be on top, someone has to be beneath you, so those who are oppressors focus on maintaining their positions while still keeping the oppressed under their thumb. In the reading, Lorde speaking more on feminism but I feel like this is inclusive of men as well, but to me, this passage gives a sense of connectivity between various issues and how none of them can truly be addressed without acknowledging the others. This quote shows how oppression is largely universal while demonstrating how uncomfortable topics should not be avoided for fear of said discomfort.
Oprah Winfrey uses her Cecil B de Mille acceptance speech to cast light on societal issues of corruption, discrimination, objectification, and racism. Oprah’s speech reflects an age and dialogue of constant controversy and arguable division surrounding allegations of sexual assault, mistreatment, and the seemingly unthinkable idea of an underlying patriarchy within the film industry. Oprah explores and conveys these ideas through the use of various persuasive linguistic and oratorical techniques. This is seen through her use of ethos and pathos when creating an emphatic delivery and appealing to the emotions of the audience when utilising anecdotes. This is also further seen through her repetition of female pronouns when persuading the audience
Then by appealing to pathos, she reminds the world of the horrendous events that occur every day as a result of the inability of girls to speak up for themselves. Finally, she ties in a sense of hope through a shift in tense, as to present that together, everyone can aid in the success of the program in the end. Overall, Michelle Obama’s speech unites the world in supporting the cause for not only a woman’s right to education but also the right to speak up against those who shame them for being a part of the female
A silent voice by Yoshitoki Ōima, The book starts off with a new girl who went to a new school but when she was introducing herself to the class she wrote down on a notebook saying that she is deaf and hopes to get to know everyone and if people want to talk to her just write on her notebook. The teacher was telling people to read some sentence on the book he tells this one girl to speak up and then when he called on the deaf girl she tried to speak and the teacher called on someone else and it was a boy who hated her he made fun of how she was talking. There was some reason that the boy hated her reason 1 was that she gave him the creeps and reason 2 was that she dragged everyone else down with here her the third reason was that they all got tired of dealing with her. In choir she tried to sing but everyone could not sing well
