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Compare and contrast "Ain't I a Woman?" by Sojourner Truth, and "Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes.
Quick answer:
Both "Ain't I a Woman?" by Sojourner Truth and "Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes address the oppression of marginalized groups, advocating for freedom. Truth focuses on the oppression of African-American women, highlighting gender inequality, while Hughes discusses broader marginalized groups, excluding women specifically. Truth questions why African-American women aren't treated equally, while Hughes lists various marginalized groups, emphasizing America's failure to fulfill its promise of freedom and equality for all.
Both Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I A Woman?" and Langston Hughes's "Let America
Be America Again" discuss the oppression of specific marginalized
groups and beg for freedom. One difference between
the two is that Truth's poem specifically addresses the oppression of women and
African-American women, whereas Hughes's poem addresses the oppression of all
marginalized groups besides women.
Truth's poem opens by talking about the special treatment women
receive from gentlemen because they are considered the weaker sex,
including being "helped into carriages," carried over ditches, lifted over mud
puddles, and being given the "best place." The speaker points out, though, that
she is not given this much respect even though she, too, is a woman. The
speaker's rhetorical question found in the refrain — "And ain't I a woman?" — serves to emphasize the fact that, due to her African descent, the narrator is not treated as having equal...
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status with other women. Her references to inequality serve toprotest against the injustices suffered by
marginalized African Americans, especially African-American
women.
Truth does not focus entirely on the oppression experienced by African-American
women. By the seventh stanza, Truth notes the belief held by men over the ages
that women are not equal to men:
Then that little man in black there say
a woman can't have as much rights as a man
cause Christ wasn't a woman.
The speaker then continues to point out the logical fallacy of that man's
claim. By pointing out how illogical it is that all women are considered
unequal to all men, the speaker is also protesting against the
marginalization of all women, not just African-American
women.
Similarly, when Hughes states, "America never was America to me," the speaker
protests against the lack of liberties in America due to the oppression
of the marginalized. In one stanza, Hughes sets out to list the
marginalized he is acting as the voice of:
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
Since Hughes does not specifically mention women as a marginalized group seeking freedom, it can be said that one difference between his and Truth's poem is that Truth's poem speaks of the oppression of women, whereas Hughes's poem speaks of the oppression of men in other marginalized groups.
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