Summary Of Spiritual Strivings

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

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”