The Veil In W. E. B. Du Bois The Soul Of Black Folk

300 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: How the media portrays blacks

A ceaseless idea that kept repeating in W.E.B. Du Bois' novel, The Soul of Black Folk, is the concept of a “veil”. What this concept meant to me is that Negroes cannot truly identify how they view themselves because they have to be viewed and accepted by the White people around them. “ I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil ” (Du Bois p.8). By being categorized as different, their role in society was minimum. With minimum to no education, absolutely no political power, no economic opportunity and no type of equality or justice Negroes were forced to label themselves as outcasts, a dispensable slave. What gave Whites the power to humiliate and break down

Show More
Related

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

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    The veil mentioned in the book serves as a dark shadow which represents being shut out of the world, it also serves as a mask concealing contempt. It was within this veil that Blacks experienced oppression “Then it dawned upon me with a certain sadness that I was different from the others; …shut out from the world by a vast veil. I had no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it” (2) In the first essay Dubois describes his realization of the veil, in this he realized the troubles he would face because of his skin color. He noticed that those who were unveiled lived lives with “dazzling opportunities” which he longed to have.

    Read More

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

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • W.E.B. DuBois' The Souls of Black Folk

    678 Words  | 2 Pages

    W.E.B. DuBois, in The Souls of Black Folk describes the very poignant image of a veil between the blacks and the whites in his society. He constructs the concept of a double-consciousness, wherein a black person has two identities as two completely separate individuals, in order to demonstrate the fallacy of these opinions. J.S. Mill also describes a certain fallacy in his own freedom of thought, a general conception of individuals that allows them to accept something similar to DuBois’ double-consciousness and perpetuates the existence of the veil.

    Read More

  • We Wear the Mastk by Paul Lawrence Dunbar

    768 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poem, "We Wear the Mask”, by Paul Laurence Dunbar is about separating Blacks people from the masks they wear. When Blacks wear their masks they are not simply hiding from their oppressor they are also hiding from themselves. This type of deceit cannot be repaid with material things. This debt can only be repaid through repentance and self-realization. The second stanza of “We Wear the Mask” tells Blacks whites should not know about their troubles. It would only give them leverage over Blacks. Black peoples’ pain and insecurities ought to be kept amongst themselves. There is no need for anyone outside the black race to know what lies beneath their masks. The third stanza turns to a divine being. Blacks look to god because he made them and is the only one that can understand them. They must wear their mask proudly. The world should stay in the dark about who they are. This poem is about Blacks knowing their place and staying in it. This is the only way they could be safe.

    Read More

  • WEB Du Bois: Racial Co-existence

    689 Words  | 2 Pages

    While reading DuBois, I was struck by the analogy of the hand used to describe race relations. With a simple concept that a child could understand, the entire race problem could be solved. Five fingers on a hand that are all different, yet by working together, they are able to perform many tasks. If you take just one away, it makes it harder for the rest to due all the same tasks. The moral of the story? Even though we are all different, when we work together there is no telling what we can do. We all bring different skills and experiences to the table, and all are worthwhile. A very simple concept- yet we still have not even come close to putting it in practice.

    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

  • W. E. B. Dubois Thesis

    617 Words  | 2 Pages

    After slavery ended, many hoped for a changed America. However, this was not so easy, as slavery left an undeniable mark on the country. One problem ended, but new problems arose as blacks and whites put up “color lines” which led to interior identity struggles. These struggles perpetuated inequality further and led W. E. B. Du Bois to believe that the only way to lift “the Veil” would be through continuing to fight not only for freedom, but for liberty - for all. Others offered different proposals on societal race roles, but all recognized that “double consciousness” of both the individual and the nation was a problem that desperately needed to be solved.

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality In The Soul Of Black Folk And The Yellow Wallpaper?

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Soul of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois talks about the struggles that the African Americans faced in the twentieth century. Du Bois mentions the conflict that concepts such as the “double consciousness” (or duality), “the veil” and the “color-line” posed for Black Americans. In his book he says that African Americans struggle with a double consciousness. He explicates that African American are forced to adopt two separate identities. First they are black, and that identity pertains to the color of their skin, the second identity is the American identity. However, he continues that the American identity is tainted because it is that if being American now but were slaves first. In other words, the double consciousness is saying that black people

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of W. E. B. Du Bois And James Baldwin

    727 Words  | 2 Pages

    From slavery being legal, to its abolishment and the Civil Rights Movement, to where we are now in today’s integrated society, it would seem only obvious that this country has made big steps in the adoption of African Americans into American society. However, writers W.E.B. Du Bois and James Baldwin who have lived and documented in between this timeline of events bringing different perspectives to the surface. Du Bois first introduced an idea that Baldwin would later expand, but both authors’ works provide insight to the underlying problem: even though the law has made African Americans equal, the people still have not.

    Read More

  • White Racial Identity

    3116 Words  | 7 Pages

    Prior to beginning my readings on white racial identity, I did not pay much attention to my white race. If someone had asked me to describe my appearance I would have said short blond hair, blue eyes, average stature, etc. One of the last things I would have noted was the color of my skin. Growing up in overwhelmingly white communities, I never thought to use the color of my skin to differentiate myself from others. Over the course of this dialogue I have learned that my white racial identity is one of the most defining aspects of my appearance in this society. There is a certain level of privilege that I am afforded based solely on the color of my skin. According to Peggy McIntosh, “White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks” (71). All these objects listed by McIntosh are things I have access to and certainly take for granted. Due to a history of non-white racial oppression, which transformed into decades of racial discrimination that still lingers today, the white race has dominated our society in terms of resources and prosperity. The ideas of wealth, higher-level education and ambition to succeed are all traits commonly linked to people of the white race that collectively define privilege. The aspect of privilege can also produce disadvantages for people of the white race as well. In the book Promoting Diversity and Justice, the author D. Goodman notes that people of advantage groups develop a sense of superiority, which will sometimes lead them to wonder if, “their achievements were based on privilege or merit” (107). Along with a diminished sense of accomplishment, the cost ...

    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

  • How It Feels To Be Colored Me

    976 Words  | 2 Pages

    Du Bois and describes the experiences of discrimination and racial inequality of black John and white John. This essay was written as a representation of the inequality that existed in America. In the essay, white John was able to attend a very prestigious university all because of his racial privilege and the fact that his father was a judge. The author intended this to insinuate how racial privilege was able to allow greater opportunities for people only because of the privilege that they had. Black John worked hard to get into an unknown college and even helped his hometown by building his very own school. When he returned home, he was alienated by his community because they did not like how he returned as a different person. It was at this moment that he began to understand what the “Veil” was and how his community did not accept him as more educated person. The overall message that Du Bois emphasizes in the essay, is that intelligent black people were overwhelmed with self doubt and confusion that stemmed from the racism and racial discrimination. White john however was born into a privileged lifestyle by having a judge as a father and being accepted into one of the most prestigious universities in the United States. In the end of the essay, Black John is punished for the killing of White John, thus the punishment of lynching was insinuated in the essay. White John sexually assaulted Black John's sister and out of rage

    Read More

  • We Wear the Mask

    1260 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, back in Dunbar's time, slavery prohibited black people from being ordinary members of society. Although they prayed heavily and persevered, they wore the mask for the time being, in the hopes of living in a world where the color of one's skin would not determine their character. No changes needed as this is a Works Cited section and should not be edited.

    Read More

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

    3326 Words  | 7 Pages

    " The Souls of Black Folk", is a collection of autobiographical and historical essays contains many vast 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. One of Dubious the most outstanding themes is the idea of "the veil." The veil provides a connection between the fourteen seemingly independent essays that make up "The Souls of Black Folk". Mentioned at least once in most of the 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 which 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”. The veil seems to be a metaphor for the separation and invisibility of black life and existence in America. It is also a major reoccurring theme in many books written about black life in America.

    Read More

  • Durkheim and DuBois, Both Non-Rational and Collective Thinkers

    1204 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Concept of the veil has been a significant symbol of clearly differentiating from the whites, in aspects of political, economical and social prospects. Durkheim explained symbol as “something that stands for something else”(pg. 135). It is a symbol that calls up shared notions and values. In the example of the Blacks in the south, the veil symbolized an “iron curtain” separating the two races, separation and invisibility, of the black and white. The veil had previously been worn because of previous traditions demanding a clear separation of the sexes. The veil is seen as a social barrier to prevent the “others”, black African Americans, from surpassing into the clean and pure white world. Nonetheless Du bois also states, that its possible for one to, lift up the veil when one wishes, and he can also exist in a region on neither side, white nor black, which shows Du bois’ many different meaning and function with the symbol of the veil.

    Read More

More about The Veil In W. E. B. Du Bois The Soul Of Black Folk

Open Document