Throughout much of African American literature there is a perpetual underlying theme; double consciousness. As if one were a comic book character with an alter ego, one has to put on a facade in order to be regarded as acceptable, civil, and not threatening. It is a concept among early African American literary people that explains a inner "twoness" and never having an individual unified identity because of this. It is thought to be expressed because of the oppression and disvaluement of blacks in a white dominated society. Du Bois explains that because of this, it is hard for blacks to be able to relate to having a black identity and having a American identity. The question becomes this: how is it expressed throughout African American literature?
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When Wright was attending a Negro literary group on the south side of Chicago, he explains that he felt he would have more in common with them because they were black and were able to read and write. This was not however, the case. Furthermore he explains that the disconnect is how the students strived to speak and acted as un Negro as possible. In an another circumstance when he was attending an atheist Communist speaker, he began to question whether the Negro could ever claim himself. He goes on to say that that Negroes would have to abandon the confused, materialistic, crumbling …show more content…
His mother often telling the children not to act black and the dad is glorifying how well white people do things. It is not surprising that the young man has problems identifying with being black because he was never shown self love. The adults in have been brainwashed by the belief that being white is better, ultimately playing a part in the blacks ' self degeneration.
The second instance is where he encounters a noted Negro woman in at a club in Philadelphia who paid to see a white musician, but would not pay to see a black one. Such racial disparity among blacks themselves make Hughes criticize and call into question black American and their perception of their own race. Hughes 's notion of the racial mountain essentially addresses that black Americans have been taught to uphold white culture as preferable to their own. This reason alone, makes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain one of the most important essays of the Harlem Renaissance, being that it serves as a unsaid proclamation for the young generation at the time.
In conclusion, there are many encounters throughout African American literature of double consciousness. The inner struggle to unite parts of black identity are still very relevant it today 's society as it was in the 1900
When Wright was attending a Negro literary group on the south side of Chicago, he explains that he felt he would have more in common with them because they were black and were able to read and write. This was not however, the case. Furthermore he explains that the disconnect is how the students strived to speak and acted as un Negro as possible. In an another circumstance when he was attending an atheist Communist speaker, he began to question whether the Negro could ever claim himself. He goes on to say that that Negroes would have to abandon the confused, materialistic, crumbling …show more content…
His mother often telling the children not to act black and the dad is glorifying how well white people do things. It is not surprising that the young man has problems identifying with being black because he was never shown self love. The adults in have been brainwashed by the belief that being white is better, ultimately playing a part in the blacks ' self degeneration.
The second instance is where he encounters a noted Negro woman in at a club in Philadelphia who paid to see a white musician, but would not pay to see a black one. Such racial disparity among blacks themselves make Hughes criticize and call into question black American and their perception of their own race. Hughes 's notion of the racial mountain essentially addresses that black Americans have been taught to uphold white culture as preferable to their own. This reason alone, makes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain one of the most important essays of the Harlem Renaissance, being that it serves as a unsaid proclamation for the young generation at the time.
In conclusion, there are many encounters throughout African American literature of double consciousness. The inner struggle to unite parts of black identity are still very relevant it today 's society as it was in the 1900