Talal Almas
FWIS 194—Americans Abroad
Dr. A Seglie
Rough draft
In the book Souls Of The Black Folk, W.E.B DuBois pitches his notion of “double consciousness” as a form of personal identity that is divided into multiple facets. For DuBois, double consciousness is “….a peculiar sensation [this double consciousness], of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others”. It is the “…two-ness of the two [American and “negro”] souls; two thoughts; two un-reconciled strivings” (DuBois 2—3). By constructing Matthew’s self-exile to Berlin, his transition to Chicago and his eventual relocation to the south in The Dark Princess, DuBois positions proletariat travel as a vehicle for delineating the identity conflict between Matthew’s “negro” and …show more content…
DuBois posits that African American can be Americans without being necessarily subjugated. Through enlightening the reader on how the “strength” of the African Americans keeps them from being “torn asunder,” he expounds that despite the white supremacy’s incessant efforts to subordinate the blacks, most African American resort to finding unifying ties between different cultures through travel and by developing alternative self-defined schemas of their identity. Although the reader realizes that “he (Matthew) has also left America—all that he loved and knew,” (DuBois 7) Matthew’s travel to Berlin, while it leads to his incongruous African American identity, also in turn conjures the idealized image of a utopian community where the blacks are held at the same pedestal as the whites. thereby emanating a new hope for himself and more so for his black fellows. When Matthew discovers the Dark council’s attempt to take the princess’s letter at any cost, Matthew summons, “if [he goes] out of [his room] dead [he] won’t be the only corpse” (DuBois 32). The princess Kautilya has indeed inspired Matthew to a deep extent. By taking the stand for his love, his passion, the princess kautilya, Matthew demonstrates that he and the blacks as a whole can rise against the white supremacy if need
FWIS 194—Americans Abroad
Dr. A Seglie
Rough draft
In the book Souls Of The Black Folk, W.E.B DuBois pitches his notion of “double consciousness” as a form of personal identity that is divided into multiple facets. For DuBois, double consciousness is “….a peculiar sensation [this double consciousness], of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others”. It is the “…two-ness of the two [American and “negro”] souls; two thoughts; two un-reconciled strivings” (DuBois 2—3). By constructing Matthew’s self-exile to Berlin, his transition to Chicago and his eventual relocation to the south in The Dark Princess, DuBois positions proletariat travel as a vehicle for delineating the identity conflict between Matthew’s “negro” and …show more content…
DuBois posits that African American can be Americans without being necessarily subjugated. Through enlightening the reader on how the “strength” of the African Americans keeps them from being “torn asunder,” he expounds that despite the white supremacy’s incessant efforts to subordinate the blacks, most African American resort to finding unifying ties between different cultures through travel and by developing alternative self-defined schemas of their identity. Although the reader realizes that “he (Matthew) has also left America—all that he loved and knew,” (DuBois 7) Matthew’s travel to Berlin, while it leads to his incongruous African American identity, also in turn conjures the idealized image of a utopian community where the blacks are held at the same pedestal as the whites. thereby emanating a new hope for himself and more so for his black fellows. When Matthew discovers the Dark council’s attempt to take the princess’s letter at any cost, Matthew summons, “if [he goes] out of [his room] dead [he] won’t be the only corpse” (DuBois 32). The princess Kautilya has indeed inspired Matthew to a deep extent. By taking the stand for his love, his passion, the princess kautilya, Matthew demonstrates that he and the blacks as a whole can rise against the white supremacy if need