Double-Consciousness in Audre Lorde’s “Coal” There is a double-consciousness, according to W.E Burghardt Du Bois, in which we view ourselves through a veil. Underneath of this veil is the true self. The person that we are in our purest state. The veil itself, however, is how society sees us and our realization of that projection. Looking in a mirror, both layers can be seen. However, the true self is still covered, muddled, unclear beneath the sheer outer shell of expectation. In her poem “Coal”, Audre Lorde alludes to this concept through the dual image of a piece of coal and a diamond. As a black woman, Lorde only transforms from coal to diamond when she embraces her blackness as coal and, ironically, rejects the societal pressure to conform by speaking her words and embracing that she is black and coal. In the beginning, Lorde equates herself with a piece of coal. She says that she is “the total black”(2068). As a piece of coal, she is black both inside and out. Being outwardly black, she may still be oppressed by the society around her, her identity being engulfed by the world. In the state of coal, she is merely “being spoken from the earth’s inside”(2068). Words would be stifled by the surrounding layers of dirt that engulf her. As coal, Lorde is susceptible to the double-consciousness described by Dubois. The poem begins with an “I”, and continues in the second line to say “is the total black”(2068). She separates herself from the total black here, indicating that her true self is not necessarily within that “total black”(2068). She also separates herself from the bad grammar associated with illiteracy that characterizes many black communities. The total black, is not Lorde herself, but in fact,... ... middle of paper ... ...ry occurs when Lorde says “At this point in time, I believe that women carry within ourselves the possibility for fusion of these two approaches so necessary for survival, and we come closest to this combination in our poetry” (Lorde 2210). Thus, through further exploration of Lorde as a person, new insight is given to the poem “Coal”. The poem also inadvertently raises questions about other poems when upheld as an example for comparison to elucidate Lorde’s feelings about double-consciousness. This greater understanding and discourse on the subject of double-consciousness is vital to understanding the poem “Coal” because it is vital to the identity of Audre Lorde as a person. Since her writing is almost exclusively and scrutinizingly about herself, learning about the broader topics and events in Lorde’s life are intrinsic to the specific poem of “Coal”.
It is very clear that the narrator is aggravated with the ignorance of some people as they assume she is supposed to sound different than she does because she is black. To emphasize her agitation throughout the poem, the narrator asks rhetorical questions such as; "Was I supposed to sound lazy, dropping syllables here, there, not finishing words but slurring the final letter so that each sentence joined the next, sliding past the listener? Were certain words off limits, too erudite, too scholarly for someone with a natural tan? And Does everyone in your family speak alike?"
In “Ain’t I a Woman”, Sojourner uses repetition, pathos and addressing opposing viewpoint to make her argument more persuasive, while in “ How it Feels to Be Colored Me”, Hurston changes her tones of writing and use metaphor to convince her audience.
As she listens to the speaker she started to think about the opinions of others regarding her. She thought to herself, ´´It was awful to be a Negro and have no control over my life¨. It was in that moment she realized that others do not see her as she sees herself. To them she's just a another black person in the world, but she does not see herself as that.
She does not see being colored as a disadvantage, but accepts it as a challenge to excel and be unique. It is a great pity that with writers with an attitude towards race such as Hurston there is still such a negative attitude towards racial and cultural differences all over the
Hurston, Zora Neale. “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.” Writer’s Presence: A Pool of Readings. 5th ed. Ed. Robert Atawan and Donald McQuade. Boston:Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. 166-170. Print
In the essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Zora Neale Hurston explores the concept of her racial identity and self-pride. Hurston begins her essay
In our class discussions and reading, I learned that women were once in charge of the human race, women were a part of a community, no race was inferior or superior, there was peace and harmony in the world until the patriarchal era came, planning to embed itself in the ground for a long time. Women were raped of their identity, their race and their status in society. Men ruled the biblical stories, leaving Mary out. Hence, the war started between the races, women fought to gain their identity back and to do so, they started with writing. One of those women was Audre Lorde. Audre Lorde was raised in a very sheltered family. She was protected by her mother who believed that white people should not be trusted. Seeing her mother as an idol, she dared not to question her authority and obeyed her as she said. The pivotal point was when Lorde was on her own in college, it is then she fought racism and prejudice with writing and her involvement in the women community.
Throughout the poem the speaker talks about light and dark. The references to light and dark act as a continuous metaphor. Light refers to, not just the speaker, but white people in general and the comparable ease of their lives in oppose to the lives of their black counterparts. Dark, of course, represents black people. The speaker says, “without meaning or / trying to I must profit from his darkness.” Furthermore the speaker thinks about how the boy is like black cotton absorbing the heat of the nation’s less than kind attitude towards black men. She, meaning the speaker, has lead a far different life. She states, “There is / no way to know how easy this / white skin makes my life.” Light symbolizes goodness and the ease of her life to the dark of the man’s life.
Though her race was a victim of brutal, harsh discrimination, Hurston lived her life as an individual first, and a person of color second. In the narrative “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston, Hurston says, “The cosmic Zora emerges. I belong to no race nor time. I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads” (Hurston 3). She feels as though an extraordinary form of herself is brought out. This form is not bound by physical traits and is the everlasting woman with the cards she is dealt. The “cosmic Zora” emerging represents the empowered, fearless Zora from Orange County, Florida. When she says that she belongs “to no race nor time”, she means that her race and background do not define who she is as an individual. “The eternal feminine” symbolizes the
In this paper, I plan to explore and gain some insight on Audre Lorde’s personal background and what motivated her to compose a number of empowering and highly respected literary works such as “Poetry is Not a Luxury”. In “Poetry is Not a Luxury”, Lorde not only gives voice to people especially women who are underrepresented, but also strongly encourages one to step out of their comfort zone and utilize writing or poetry to express and free oneself of repressed emotions. I am greatly interested in broadening my knowledge and understanding of the themes that are most prominent in Lorde’s works such as feminism, sexism and racism. It is my hope that after knowing more about her that I would also be inspired to translate my thoughts and feelings
Germinating in anonymous Middle English lyrics, the subversion of the classical poetic representation of feminine beauty as fair-haired and blue-eyed took on new meaning in the age of exploration under sonneteers Sidney and Shakespeare. No longer did the brown hair of "Alison" only serve to distinguish her from the pack; the features of the new "Dark Lady" became more pronounced and sullied, and her eroticized associations with the foreignness of the New World grew more explicit through conceits of colonization. However, the evolving dichotomy between fairness and darkness was not quite so revolutionary; in fact, Sidney and Shakespeare lauded the virtues of fairness with the same degree of passion as their predecessors, albeit in a cloaked form. To counter their mistresses' exterior darkness, the poets locate an interior lightness that radiates beyond the funereal veil of hair or eyes‹raven-hair or jet-eyes is acceptable only if there is an innate brightness that illuminates the sensuality of the superficial.
Audre Lorde was among the first who said that your silence will not protect you. Constantly, I am bombarded by images of police brutality and European aesthetics that restrict black navigation within America. While my brothers and sisters are actively forming grassroots organizations and protesting racial injustice, my shyness restrains me behind this computer screen and on this invisible stage, only wondering, “what do I say?” Although my mouth falters to speak out, my writing serves as a continuing stage to regain my sense of
Zora Neale Hurston’s writing embodies the modernism themes of alienation and the reaffirmation of racial and social identity. She has a subjective style of writing in which comes from the inside of the character’s mind and heart, rather than from an external point of view. Hurston addresses the themes of race relations, discrimination, and racial and social identity. At a time when it is not considered beneficial to be “colored,” Hurston steps out of the norm and embraces her racial identity.
This, in fact, is an example of “dynamic decomposition” of which the speaker claims she understands nothing. The ironic contradiction of form and content underlines the contradiction between the women’s presentation of her outer self and that of her inner self. The poem concludes with the line “’Let us go home she is tired and wants to go to bed.’” which is a statement made by the man. Hence, it “appears to give the last word to the men” but, in reality, it mirrors the poem’s opening lines and emphasises the role the woman assumes on the outside as well as her inner awareness and criticism. This echoes Loy’s proclamation in her “Feminist Manifesto” in which she states that women should “[l]eave off looking to men to find out what [they] are not [but] seek within [themselves] to find out what [they] are”. Therefore, the poem presents a “new woman” confined in the traditional social order but resisting it as she is aware and critical of
(1404) This name she chose can help explain the role as a woman poet and writer she felt she had to play and why she wrote the various works that she produced throughout her life. Lorde was brought up in Harlem and probably understood the difficulties people can encounter when race is involved. In the poem the "Power" she is trying to use her poetic gift to stand up for these racial injustices and to try to make a conscience difference. Lorde wants to be heard, instead of just using rhetoric and the art of effective writing, she is searching for the power she has as an African-American woman poet to make people hear and think about racial injustices.