B. Du Bois's Essay 'Of Spiritual Strivings'

W.E.B. Du Bois’s essay “Of Spiritual Strivings” proposes his idea of “double-consciousness” and its impact on the people who possess it. Double-consciousness is the idea that African-Americans are neither accepted as African nor as American. As a result, Du Bois explains, they experience the absence of true self-identity. He describes this by saying, “One ever feels his two-ness—an American and a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” (11). In this description, Du Bois articulates the African-American body as being divided by opposing ideals, of which neither fit the actual self. As a result, he claims, the African-American

people face impossible strife, which they have survived only through perseverance. Throughout his essay, Du Bois examines this idea in an incredibly complex and nuanced manner. However, one of Du Bois’s most intriguing claims is that double-consciousness is not only an overwhelming burden, but is also the ultimate gift. In belonging to neither identity, he claims, the African-American people can clearly examine and intentionally challenge the dominant societies, merging divided identities into a better and truer people, and ultimately paving the way for greater human goodness to be achieved.
W.E.B.

Du Bois introduces double-consciousness as a gift before even giving the idea its name. After a paragraph detailing his realization of “the veil”, or the “color line” dividing himself as an African-American from the white American world, Du Bois shifts his narrative. Previously speaking to the oppression of his people by white society, he then begins his paragraph by introducing African-American people as being gifted. He starts, “After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second sight in this American world-- a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world” (11). In this description, Du Bois first characterizes African-American people as the “seventh son”. This name is a reference to African American folklore, which portrays seventh sons as having special abilities, such as being able to predict the future (10). This reference indicates the exceptionality of African-American identity, definitively marking the people as possessing certain power. Furthermore, it conveys a sense of prophestism, as the capacity for such unique power implicates a sense of responsibility to use this power for a greater

purpose.
After Du Bois uses “the seventh son” to describe the African-American people, he then says that this son was “born with a veil” (10). As aforementioned, the concept of the veil was initially used to show the oppressive exclusion of African-Americans. Specifically, Du Bois describes being refused in a store, which revealed to him that he was “shut out from their world by a vast veil” (10). This story defined the veil as the border between African-Americans and “their world”, or the dominant white American world. However, in this quotation, he describes African-Americans as the “seventh son” before saying that this son was “born with a veil”. This sentence structure gives nuance to the divide, implicating the reason why it is described as a veil, rather than as a door or a wall. The image of a veil is important because it indicates translucency. This translucency, as it follows the reference of a “seventh son”, therefore denotes the unique ability of African-Americans to see into American society, examining it with the clear eyes that only outsiders can have.
Du Bois finishes his description of the African-American people by announcing that they are “gifted with second sight in this American world”. Second sight can be defined as the ability to perceive things that are not present to the senses, such as visions of the future (10). This quote indicates that clairvoyant perception is the African-American people’s ultimate power, the power given to the “seventh son”. Additionally, Du Bois specifically uses the word “gifted” to describe this sight. This word implies that such power was intentionally designated to the African-American people, conveying a sense of opportunity. He then goes on to describe the American world as “--a world which yields him [the Negro] no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world” (11). This description of the world articulates the definition of double-consciousness, which exists because African-Americans are oppressively excluded from the white American world. This structure of empowering articulation of African-American people before disparaging articulation of the world is intentional. It calls upon the African-American people to utilize their perception wrought by double-consciousness to overcome double-consciousness. In this opportunity, he conveys, there are greater implications for the world.
In his essay “Of Spiritual Strivings”, W.E.B.

Du Bouis carefully articulates the idea that double-consciousness is an opportunity. He then clarifies this opportunity by saying the ultimate goal is “to merge his [the Negro] double self into a better and truer self” (11). In saying this, Du Bois marks overcoming double-consciousness as the beginning of African-American self-hood and self-betterment. Du Bois takes this yet another step further, however. He concludes his essay by saying, “Merely a concrete test of the underlying principals of the great republic is the Negro Problem, and the spiritual striving of the freedmen’s sons in the travail of souls whose burden is almost beyond the measure of strength, but who bear it in the name of a historic race, in the name of this land of their father’s fathers, and in the name of human opportunity” (16). This quote requires thorough unpacking. However, in saying that “the Negro Problem”, or the strife caused by double-consciousness, is a test of “the underlying principals of the great republic”, Du Bois makes it clear that the liberation of African-American people is not only vital for African-Americans, but also for the betterment of American society. Perhaps even more significantly, he concludes by connecting this liberation to “the name of human opportunity”. This idea that the double-consciousness of African-Americans is a key to greater human opportunity indicates his broader idea of human betterment through empowered

enlightenment. To Du Bois, this opportunity is the “spiritual strivings” after which the essay is named.
W.E.B. Du Bois characterizes the oppressive prejudice that segregates African-Americans from white American society as “double consciousness”. However, it is from this exclusion, he claims, that African-Americans are gifted with poignant power. Through lucid sight into American society, African-Americans can forge a better, truer identity for themselves. And, in doing so, they manifest human betterment. This argument is compelling and significant. It affirms the power of African-Americans and their role in the world, and sheds emboldening perspective on the difficulties that they face. However, this argument that African-American liberation is vital human liberation can be a tremendously overwhelming idea. This concept conjures the sense that Du Bois believes that African-Americans must be exceptional in order to be acceptable. However, the context of spirituality, which intertwines individual liberation with overcoming tribulation, changes this sense. It reveals that he is calling on his people to be exceptional not in order to be accepted, but simply because they have the power and ability to be exceptional. It is this message of the ability to achieve that he wanted to tell African-American and white society, in order to strive for not only equality, but also the ultimate human goodness of all.