Question

Sojourner Truth

Use the story to answer the question.

In 3–5 sentences, describe what the audience knows that the characters do not. Then, explain how this knowledge most likely affects the audience’s perception of the characters and their actions.

Answer 1

(Using Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” as the story.) The audience knows Sojourner Truth’s lived experience — that she is a formerly enslaved Black woman who has endured physical labor, abuse, and the loss of family, yet stands powerful and eloquent — while the men in the scene either doubt women’s strength and rights or treat her as less than fully human. The audience also knows the larger moral and historical truth that slavery and sexism are unjust, even if the characters insist otherwise.

Because the audience possesses this broader knowledge, the men’s arguments read as ignorant, hypocritical, and cruel; Truth’s questions and testimony become all the more powerful and righteous. As a result readers feel greater sympathy and respect for Truth and condemnation or frustration toward the characters who deny her equality.