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

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

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