Double-Awareness In Toni Morrison's Native Son And The Bluest Eye

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Self awareness of a person’s identity can lead to a challenging scope of ascertaining moving forward: the moment he/she has an earth- shattering revelation comprehending, they of African descendant and they are a problem. The awakening of double-consciousness grew within the literary cannon sensing the pressure of duality in the works of Native Son and The Bluest Eye, Richard Wright and Toni Morrison respectively create two characters who deal with this struggle. It is illustrated through both text how society creates situations that impose the characters Bigger and Pecola encountering extreme measures in the mind frame of double consciousness in their pursuit of survival physically, the search for identity, the desire of self- expression and self-fulfillment. Tracing the efforts of descendants of Africans holds a place of discomfort for African Americans, attempting to live in a world dictated by Whites. An asymmetrical treatment of Blacks, in comparison to Whites has been seen throughout our past: living in a world surrounded by a racist society intertwined with Africana descendants having double-consciousness, coexisting with dualism through the realms of life and society. During the era, of the 1920’s the Harlem Renaissance began in Harlem, New York City, as an African American artistic and …show more content…

As a young man Bigger was a magnet to trouble; however, his identity is unveiled once he attains a job at the home of the Dalton’s. Operating in the mind of double-consciousness prompts two murders, the rape of his girlfriend and fleet from the police; result in Bigger facing a trail for such charges. Wright depicts Bigger, as uncertain of his actions, “I didn’t want to kill,” Bigger shouts. “But what I killed for, I am! It must’ve been pretty deep in me to make me kill”(Native Son

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