W. E. B. Dubois The Souls Of Black Folk Analysis

1071 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays on why self awareness is important

While growing up in the midst of a restrictive world, education becomes the rubicon between a guileless soul and adulthood. In the excerpt from W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois provides a roadmap for African Americans to discover and understand themselves through the pursuit of knowledge, self-awareness, and authenticity. The excerpt is a significant part of the essay because it also speaks for the modern day pursuit of knowledge, self-awareness, and authenticity, an indispensable path into finding one’s self. The pursuit of knowledge is a path that offers a platform into learning more about ourselves. Du Bois argues that the pursuit of knowledge is demanding work, he claims, “In those sombre forests of his striving his own soul rose before him, and he saw himself, – darkly as through a veil.” The “sombre forests” is a metaphor for the inevitable path taken during the pursuit of knowledge. The metaphor evokes an image of a morbid and gloomy path. …show more content…

It’s important to understand that the path will incline in it’s calamity, especially for youth, but it’s crucial for the pursuit of knowledge. The intercontinental world we live in is complete with diversity, making it essential for people to engage in educating themselves about all the wonders of the world. While taking into account that the pursuit of knowledge is a progressive road. Knowledge will then promote one into self-awareness, a chance for one to learn about themselves. During the pursuit of self-awareness, one learns to identify their strengths and weakness. This is a susceptible region, where youth must remember not to become indistinguishable with everyone else. Nevertheless, it allows for the pursuit of authenticity, the construction of one’s unique self. Then comes the horizon, the light behind the

Show More
Related

  • W. E. B. Dubois Living Behind The Veil Summary

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    The work, the Souls of Black Folk explains the problem of color-line in the twentieth century. Examining the time following the civil war the author, W.E.B. Dubois, explains the African American experience of living behind the “veil”. To fully explain the experience of living behind the veil, he provides the reader with situations that a black race experiences in reconstruction. This allowed the readers to metaphorically step into the veil with him. He accomplishes this with the use of “songs of sorrow” with were at the beginning of each chapter, and with the use of anecdotes.

    Read More

  • W.E.B. DuBois: Hall of Fame

    943 Words  | 2 Pages

    W.E.B. DuBois: Hall of Fame. W.E.B. DuBois was an educator, writer, scholar, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, and later in his life a communist, whose life goal was to gain equal rights for all African Americans around the world. DuBois’ writings were mostly forgotten till the late 1960s, because of his involvement in communism and his absence during the civil rights movement in America. Even though his writings were temporarily forgotten because of his tarnished reputation, his legacy has since been restored allowing for his writings to be reprinted becoming a major influence for both academics and activists. DuBois’ accomplishments include his part in the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and his support for the civil rights movement advocating for equal social and economic rights for all African Americans.

    Read More

  • Suffering and Struggle in Sonny´s Blues by James Baldwin

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.

    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

  • Book Of Negroes Literary Analysis

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    Laurence Hill’s novel, The Book of Negroes, uses first-person narrator to depict the whole life ofAminata Diallo, beginning with Bayo, a small village in West Africa, abducting from her family at eleven years old. She witnessed the death of her parents with her own eyes when she was stolen. She was then sent to America and began her slave life. She went through a lot: she lost her children and was informed that her husband was dead. At last she gained freedom again and became an abolitionist against the slave trade. This book uses slave narrative as its genre to present a powerful woman’s life.She was a slave, yes, but she was also an abolitionist. She always held hope in the heart, she resist her dehumanization.

    Read More

  • Personal Identity In John Knowles A Separate Peace

    1248 Words  | 3 Pages

    Beyond the basic need for a sense of control, people are driven by their sense of identity, of who they are. Each person lives in their own universes, which are centered upon their feeling of self-purpose. There are multiple types of identities such as individual and group identities. Each person's identity is formed differently because of the unique experiences every individual encounters. The formation can be affected by many things such as their home environment, social concurrences, and physiological health. This story, A Separate Peace, exhibits interesting main characters which establish the frequent struggles of personal identity in adolescence.

    Read More

  • The Book of Negroes Expository Essay

    1236 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is impossible for anyone to survive a horrible event in their life without a relationship to have to keep them alive. The connection and emotional bond between the person suffering and the other is sometimes all they need to survive. On the other hand, not having anyone to believe in can make death appear easier than life allowing the person to give up instead of fighting for survival. In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, Aminata Diallo survives her course through slavery by remembering her family and the friends that she makes. Aminata is taught by her mother, Sira to deliver babies in the villages of her homeland. This skill proves to be very valuable to Aminata as it helps her deliver her friends babies and create a source of income. Aminata’s father taught Aminata to write small words in the dirt when she was small. Throughout the rest of the novel, Aminata carries this love for learning new things to the places that she travels and it inspires her to accept the opportunities given to her to learn how to write, read maps, and perform accounting duties. Early in the novel Aminata meets Chekura and they establish a strong relationship. Eventually they get married but they are separated numerous times after. Aminata continuously remembers and holds onto her times with Chekura amidst all of her troubles. CHILDREN. The only reason why Aminata Diallo does not die during her journey into and out of slavery is because she believes strongly in her parents, husband and children; therefore proving that people survive hardships only when they have relationships in which to believe.

    Read More

  • WEB DuBois's Influence on Literature and People

    1289 Words  | 3 Pages

    WEB DuBois's Influence on Literature and People. In his work The Souls of Black Folk, web DuBois had described the life and problems that blacks in America are not easy. DuBois had a very different plan in the struggle for black equality and the struggle for the abolishment of racism than other people that wanted a "separate black" nation" and others that just wanted the blacks to stay submissive. DuBois only wanted blacks to work hard to become active parts of American society.

    Read More

  • The Theme of the Veil in W.E.B. Du Bois' Souls of Black Folk

    2922 Words  | 6 Pages

    "For now we see through a glass, darkly" --Isiah 25:7 W.E.B. Du Bois's Souls of Black Folk, a collection of autobiographical and historical essays contains many 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; but one of the most striking themes is that of "the veil. " The veil provides a link between the 14 seemingly unconnected essays that make up The Souls of Black Folk. Mentioned at least once in most of the 14 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 with 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.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Talented Tenth By W. E. B. Dubois

    1410 Words  | 3 Pages

    Morehouse’s idea of the “Talented Tenth,” W.E.B. DuBois starts by stating that “the Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men” (DuBois 1). Present in Dubois’s essay and Iola Leroy, this portrayal of the “Talented Tenth” as the saviors of the black community is one reason why the philosophy is widely criticized and considered elitist. DuBois believes education is a great equalizer and the college educated among a race lead and direct the community, but it is concerning that his theory of education to mitigate the differences between racial communities is best supported by mulattoes and individuals capable of racially passing. While the philosophy may be too idealistic and unsupported, the connection between racial identity and the ability to lead or help the black community is justifiable because of the power of mulattoes as shown in literature. Over a century after its first usage, the “Talented Tenth” was mentioned in a commencement address by President Obama at Morehouse College, the United States’ only all-male historically black college. Obama altered the initial conception of the term to call the black community to action and participate more in local, national, and global communities, constructing the concept of a modern “Talented Tenth” in which no group functions as the savior of others. Rather than for personal benefit, Obama urges us to use our degrees to combat the disparities in our communities. Therefore, in order for racial equality to be reached, all communities must work together and contribute to society, rather than a few select elites serving as the key to

    Read More

  • Ida B. Wells, Booker T, Washington, and W.E.B Dubois

    1245 Words  | 3 Pages

    B., Du Bois W. E. The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1979. University of Virginia Library. 4 Oct. 2008. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. 37.

    Read More

  • The Souls Of Black Folk by Du Bois

    1584 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Du Bois' "Forethought" to his essay collection, The Souls of Black Folk, he entreats the reader to receive his book in an attempt to understand the world of African Americans—in effect the "souls of black folk." Implicit in this appeal is the assumption that the author is capable of representing an entire "people." This presumption comes out of Du Bois' own dual nature as a black man who has lived in the South for a time, yet who is Harvard-educated and cultured in Europe. Du Bois illustrates the duality or "two-ness," which is the function of his central metaphor, the "veil" that hangs between white America and black; as an African American, he is by definition a participant in two worlds. The form of the text makes evident the author's duality: Du Bois shuttles between voices and media to express this quality of being divided, both for himself as an individual, and for his "people" as a whole. In relaying the story of African-American people, he relies on his own experience and voice and in so doing creates the narrative. Hence the work is as much the story of his soul as it is about the souls of all black folk. Du Bois epitomizes the inseparability of the personal and the political; through the text of The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois straddles two worlds and narrates his own experience.

    Read More

  • W. E. B Dubois And The Gilded Age Analysis

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    DuBois believes that in a time of such social and economic inequality in the Nation the only way for African Americans to take their deserved rights, and overcome the daily injustices of the Gilded Age and racism is through thorough education.

    Read More

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

    3326 Words  | 7 Pages

    The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.

    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

More about W. E. B. Dubois The Souls Of Black Folk Analysis

Open Document