Summary Of Spiritual Strivings

1026 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: A essay on web dubois

In response to the discrimination the American Negroes faced during the twentieth century, writer W.E.B Du Bois advocates for true freedom and unity in his book “The Souls of Black Folks.” His first chapter, “Of Spiritual Strivings,” effectively introduces the central concept of the “problem” (par 1) with several minor themes and concepts of the “veil” (par 2), “twoness” (par 3), and the “unifying ideal” (par 12). Along with these concepts, he further develops the central idea of “problem” by effectively using figurative language and many rhetoric devices. The “problem” (par 1) of the society is first defined further in depth by the imagery of “veil” (par 2). As Du Bois suggests, “I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart …show more content…

This twoness “yields him (the American Negroes) no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world” (par 3). With this, Du Bois claims the American Negroes of having a “double- consciousness” (par 2) that because it forces the black folks to understand and think of themselves through the eyes of the “other world” (par 1), it makes the American Negro “half-men” (par 11). As Du Bois would later point out in the passage, “To which the Negro cries Amen! And swears that to so much of this strange prejudice as is founded on just homage to civilization, culture, righteousness, and progress, he humbly bows and meekly does obeisance” (par 10). The Negro stands helpless against the discrimination because of this “twoness” that is defined by the “two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” (par 3). The parallelism in the sentence effectively, yet subtly, uses repetition to drill the emotional appeal and impact of “being torn asunder” (par 3) into the readers. As such, with the vivid language that draws the audience into the passage, Du Bois then leads these concepts into the “unifying ideal” (par 12) Du Bois advocates as the solution to the “problem”

Show More
Related

  • Comparing W. E. B. Dubois And Alain Locke

    1145 Words  | 3 Pages

    African American people have encountered political, social and economic challenges that have, in many ways, shaped the way they think and perceive the issues that surround their race from the time of slavery to this day. As a way of fighting disadvantages and injustice, African Americans such as WEB Dubois and Alain Locke have introduced their philosophical views and studies of that African American race and the racism that has oppressed them for decades. In this paper, I’m going to introduce a short biography of the African American philosophers WEB Du Bois and Alain Locke compare and contrast their approaches to philosophical issues pertaining racism.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Book T Washington And Booker T. Dubois

    1522 Words  | 4 Pages

    Du Bois blatantly told the country that the government played a role in the negative situation of blacks and had an integral role in ensuring that they achieved full citizenship. Du Bois, rightfully so, was extremely critical of the government, citing that “so flagrant became the political scandals that reputable men began to leave politics alone, and politics consequently became disreputable.” From that, comes his key connection to the negative political standing of blacks. He said, “In this state of mind it became easy to wink at the suppression of the Negro vote in the South, and to advise self-respecting Negroes to leave politics entirely alone.” Du Bois wanted blacks to involve themselves in politics and in doing so the struggle for civil rights to change that stigma and more importantly to have a voice. This desire to change the sheer corruption and abuse that came with de jure and de facto segregation was most evident with the “Coming of John.” In this chapter, Du Bois tells the story of two young men, one white, and one black, who both went to college. When the black one returns home after being in school, he no longer shares the ignorant bliss that all of his fellow blacks have. He opens up a school to try and enlighten the youth, but is told to teach them to be lesser than whites. It almost seems as though the story is a

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Booker T. Washington And W. E. B. Du Bois

    790 Words  | 2 Pages

    What Du Bois says here is important, because it deals with three very important topics all at once. He mentions African-Americans needing the right to vote, how discrimination because of color is very wrong, and how black children need education. All in this one sentence has three important view on different subjects beneath the umbrella of African-Americans being treated the same as white people.

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of W. E. B. Du Bois And James Baldwin

    727 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Europeans’ ignorance is innocent though compared to the Americans because they weren’t trying to be mean. They genuinely didn’t know. Also, Baldwin expands on the idea of double consciousness Du Bois raised in his essay. “What one’s imagination makes of other people is dictated, or course, by the laws of one’s own personality and it is one of the ironies of black-white relations that, by means of what the white man imagines the black man to be, the black man is enabled to know who the white man is.” If both men could speak together right now, Baldwin would say that there’s more to gain from this double consciousness than Du Bois thinks. Not only does the white man shape the black man’s identity, it also works vice

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Booker T Washington's Up From Slavery And The Souls Of Black Folk.

    1468 Words  | 3 Pages

    Du Bois was a scholar activist who proposed lots of solutions for the issue of racism and discrimination. Du Bois was sort of an opposition to Washington’s ideology, as he strongly believes that it can only help to disseminate white’s oppression towards blacks. We can see his dissatisfaction based on his writing with a title On Booker T. Washington and Others. He wrote that Washington’s philosophy was really not a good idea because the white extremists from the south will perceived this idea as blacks’ complete surrender for the request of civil rights and political equality. Du Bois had a different view on this issue if compared to Washington because of their different early lifestyles. Unlike Washington, Du Bois was born free in the North and he did not receive any harsh experienced as a slave himself and was also grew up in a predominantly white area. In his writings, it is obvious that he thought that the most important thing that the black should gain was to have the equality with whites. Regarding the issue of the voting rights, Du Bois strongly believed that it is important for black people to agitate to get the right to vote. He also believed that the disfranchisement of poor men could mean the catastrophe of South’s democracy (Painter 157). In his writing with a title Of Our Spiritual Strivings, he wrote that it was significant for blacks to exercise the right to vote because there were whites that wanted to put them back in their inferior position—and it was

    Read More

  • What Is The Difference Between Web Du Bois And Booker T Washington

    805 Words  | 2 Pages

    Here is the full text of this classic in the literature of civil rights. It is a prophetic work anticipating and inspiring much of the black consciousness and activism of the 1960s. In it Du Bois describes the magnitude of American racism and demands that it end. He draws on his own life for illustration- from his early experrience teaching in the hills of Tennessee to the death of his infant son and his historic break with the 'accomodationist ' position of Booker T. Washington..

    Read More

  • Durkheim and DuBois, Both Non-Rational and Collective Thinkers

    1204 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... collective consciousness of the Black community in the nineteen hundreds were seen throughout the veil a physical and psychological and division of race. The veil is not seen as a simple cloth to Du Bois but instead a prison which prevents the blacks from improving, or gain equality or education and makes them see themselves as the negative biases through the eyes of the whites which helps us see the sacred as evil. The veil is also seen as a blindfold and a trap on the many thousands which live with the veil hiding their true identity, segregated from the whites and confused themselves in biases of themselves. Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folks had helped to life off the veil and show the true paid and sorry which the people of the South had witnessed. Du Bois inclines the people not to live behind the veil but to live above it to better themselves as well as others.

    Read More

  • Summary Of ' The Philadelphia Negro '

    1336 Words  | 3 Pages

    That they can become leaders by continuing their education, writing books, or becoming involved in social change. The other book that he wrote also in 1903, called The Souls of Black Folks was very controversial because it criticized and scrutinized the philosophies of Booker T. Washington. In the book, Du Bois creates two very famous terms in academia. The terms he created are “double consciousness” and “the Veil”. “Double consciousness" is a belief that African-American people in the United States have to live with two identities.... ...

    Read More

  • Of Booker T Washington And Others Summary

    804 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout his essay, Du Bois challenged Booker T. Washington’s policy of racial accommodation and gradualism. In this article Du Bois discusses many issues he believes he sees

    Read More

  • Dubois's Essay 'A Mild Suggestion'?

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    This statement suggests that the quality of life for colored people in this time period is worse than being dead. It is implied by Dubois in this essay that not only would the white people be happier if the black people were all killed, but also that the black people would be happier due to them not having to face the hatred and segregation that they were subject to at the time. Dubois makes a sound argument that the white people in this time period have a problem with a black man making the same amount of money as them and getting the same education as them. They do not believe the black man is their equal. He uses the colored man in the essay to bring to light an extreme solution to the apparent problem, which in turn makes the white people, and the reader, open their eyes to the glaring issues inherent in racist behaviour and

    Read More

  • The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois

    3326 Words  | 7 Pages

    " The Souls of Black Folk", is a collection of autobiographical and historical essays contains many vast themes. There is the theme of souls and their attainment of consciousness, the theme of double consciousness and the duality and bifurcation of black life and culture. One of Dubious the most outstanding themes is the idea of "the veil." The veil provides a connection between the fourteen seemingly independent essays that make up "The Souls of Black Folk". Mentioned at least once in most of the essays, it means that, "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. It is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others”. The veil seems to be a metaphor for the separation and invisibility of black life and existence in America. It is also a major reoccurring theme in many books written about black life in America.

    Read More

  • Of Our Spiritual Strivings Rhetorical Analysis

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    What is the point of educating the African Americans if all they will be is paid slaves anyhow?, “Lo! we are diseased and dying, cried the dark hosts; we cannot write, our voting is vain; what need of education, since we must always cook and serve?” (par. 11). Du Bois doesn’t understand the issue with African Americans living among, equal to, and determined with the Whites, “Will America be poorer if she replace her brutal dyspeptic blundering with light-hearted but determined Negro humility? or her coarse and cruel wit with loving jovial good-humor? or her vulgar music with the soul of the Sorrow Songs” (par. 12). Du Bois and the African American population are determined to change the mindset of the Whites and America as a whole to be more accepting of African Americans and ultimately

    Read More

  • Double-Conciousness in The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    …sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, -an American, 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. (Du Bois 1)

    Read More

  • A Raisin in the Sun: The Duality of African-America, George Murchison and Joseph Asagai

    1367 Words  | 3 Pages

    “It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness, – an American, 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.” (Dubois 694).

    Read More

  • Double Consciousness and the American Narrative

    1077 Words  | 3 Pages

    DuBois presents the question “[h]ow does it feel to be a problem?”, introducing the attitude towards African-Americans upon their emancipation (DuBois 3). The idea of freedom for slaves meant equality, but “the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land […] the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people” (6). The challenge faced during this time was how to deal with the now freed slaves who once had no rights. DuBois states that African-Americans merely wish “to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly i...

    Read More

More about Summary Of Spiritual Strivings

Open Document