Analysis Of Frantz Fanon's Black Skins White Masks

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Recommended: Hegels master slave dialectic

In The Phenomenology of Spirit Hegel dives deep into his most sought ought ideology of the master-slave dialectic, which describes the process self-consciousness and need for recognition. This ideology played a particular role in Frantz Fanon’s novel Black Skins White Masks in one of the ending chapters in his critique of Western colonialism. Taking a look into Hegel’s master-slave dialectic and understanding the impact that it had in Fanons relationship to colonial context will provide a differing view of the master-slave dialectic relationship.
To first understand the relationship between Hegel and Fanon we must first understand the relationship between the master and the slave as well as the significance the lies between them. Hegel uses the master-slave relationship to demonstrate the working process of self-consciousness. The master-slave dialectic provides the realization of self-consciousness and how one can only become conscious of oneself by the recognition of an-other. This is where one declares them selves as an “I” which is important because they differentiate themselves from a “thing”. By declaring oneself as not a “thing” they can then declare the Other as an “object” and start the process of self actualization. The Other is a crucial component of the self-identity relationship, one must distinguish that there is the Other but the other must be different then them. By declaring the Other to be something that they are not, the concept of “I” and self-actualization may be declared. According to Hegel, the Master becomes conscious of oneself by the presence of the Other which is the slave in this relationship. The master does not view the slave as being equal to oneself or else the entire self actualization woul...

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...he black slave is seeking in this situation because the slave knows nothing other than to duplicate the White master.
Fanon’s title Black Skins White Masks is very symbolic of this entire ideology. The Black slave in this situation wants their own sense of self-identity and inherits the values of his White masters, therefor symbolically wearing the “White Mask”. But once the black man realizes that he has this desire to no longer be black, it shows the identity problem within him self and uncovers the inequality in society. All of this together is the whole complex that the black man creates and becomes obsessed with ends up inevitably with an act of violence to obtain this desire of freedom. Within the colonial situation there is no way to have mutual recognition within this relationship, violence and conflict is buried beneath society and is merely covered up.

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