Question

Sojourner Truth by Joanna Evans
The fight for suffrage drives a wedge between a spirited young woman and her mother. . . .

Characters

NARRATOR

REBECCA, 17 years old

MAMA, her mother

BEFORE RISE: NARRATOR enters, addresses audience.

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

The audience, aware from the title and historical context, knows that Rebecca will grow into Sojourner Truth and become an influential voice for abolition and women’s rights—something the seventeen‑year‑old and her mother cannot foresee. Rebecca and Mama only feel the immediate pain, fear, and uncertainty of their rift, not the larger historical importance of Rebecca’s choices. That dramatic irony makes the audience more sympathetic to Rebecca’s boldness (seeing it as courage and destiny rather than mere rebellion) and casts Mama’s resistance as understandable but ultimately limited by short‑term worry. The result heightens emotional tension and leads the audience to root for Rebecca while feeling poignancy for Mama’s lack of foresight.