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Identity In The Bhagavad Gita

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For my final project, I will write a poem that exhibits characteristic of the three novels The Bhagavad-Gita by , The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B DuBois , and An Account, Much Abbreviated, of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolome de Las Casas. All three novels share a common theme that associates with the quest in choosing identity, containing metaphors for the journey of the soul from an individual's time, place and attachments to an intangible perspective. During this time in particular, human existence and the factors of love, and faith are questioned. They are questioned so much so that people now long to return to the time when love and compassion for other existed. We see this in present day, communities all over the world trying …show more content…

He wants to honor his born duty of being a warrior but at the same time realizes that the tasks that are asked of him contradict his newfound moral values, in turn he refuses to wage this war against his kin. Arjuna asks the Lord, Krishna for advice saying to him, "I see omens of chaos, Krishna/ I see no good in killing my kinsmen in battle. Krishna, I see no victory, or kingship or pleasures” (Gita 1:30). Krishna responds, telling Arjuna that he should fight and wants him to realize the consequences of not doing so. Arjuna can bring about dishonor to his family and also go against his duty as the king. If he abandons his duty then he will show a lack of leadership and loyalty to his people, resulting in the most undesirable qualities for a king: weak and vulnerable. In the end, Arjuna had no legitimate justifications for ceasing this position, so he continued to …show more content…

Du Bois is an essential read as it demonstrates a concept the “veil” of race, the double-consciousness, and the aspects of life dominated by the concept of racism and culture in America. In particular, Du Bois presents the idea of double consciences, which is described as two-ness in a person. “One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” (DuBois 38). Du Bois refers to this as the ability to see oneself through another’s eyes, having the ability to have more than one perspective of how people see us versus how we see ourselves. In that same token, we struggle to identify who we are because we see who we are for our true selves but are being told

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Arjuna's Worldview

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In the beginning of The Bhagavad-Gita, Arjuna’s worldview is that nothing is bigger than family to him; he strongly believes that destroying your own family is a sin. This directs his decision making and actions by, setting down his bows and arrows in the middle of the battle field. Being a warrior, Arjuna looks at his opponents, and sees his kinsmen, and is no longer ready for war. Arjuna tells Krishna, “I lament the great sin/ we commit when our greed/ for kingship and pleasures/ drives us to kill our kinsmen.” (1.45).

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Summary Of The Souls Of Black Folk By W. E. B Dubois

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One of the first things W. E. B. DuBois discusses in the first chapter of The Souls of Black Folk is the idea that African Americans are “problems.” Four decades after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans are not as free as the proclamation originally claimed. DuBois states that no man or woman “worshipped Freedom with such unquestioning faith” the way African Americans did for two centuries. He then goes into a discussion regarding how much disappointment the Emancipation Proclamation brought to African Americans. He suggests that “the idea of ‘book-learning’” supported African Americans ability to truly explore themselves, particularly “self-consciousness and self-respect.”

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Du Bois uses many different ways to target the reader. His main purpose in “Of Our Spiritual Strivings”, is to educate mistreated Africans American about demanding equality and rights that were promised to them around the time of the Emancipation Proclamation. Du Bois uses different types of literary devices (mostly personifications) and firsthand accounts stories about injustice to make his point to the reader. For example, Du Bois states, “Will America be poorer if she replaces her brutal dyspeptic blundering with light-hearted but determined Negro humility?” (Du Bois 297).

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W. E. B. Dubois Analysis

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In the analysis of the abundance of wonderful leaders who made a difference in the African American community since emancipation, W.E.B Du Bois made a special impact to advance the world. From founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to his influential book The Souls of Black Folk, he always found an accurate yet abstract way of verbalizing the strives of African Americans as well as making platforms for them to be known. Although he had less power than most of the bigger named African American leaders of his time, W.E.B Dubois’ overweighing strengths verses weaknesses, accurate and creative analogies, leadership style, and the successful foundations he stood for demonstrates his ability to be both realistic and accurate in his assessment since emancipation. Though Du Bois did have a beneficial impact

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Plessy V. Ferguson's Theory Of Civil Rights

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The NAACP’s primary goal during Du Bois’ time was to invalidate the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson. He was fond of Booker T. Washington, mentioned earlier, and many of his own views surrounded the concept of double consciousness. Du Bois believed that as a result of Plessy v. Ferguson African Americans began to judge themselves based on white standards, ultimately leading to the internal acceptance of inferiority. He describes the state of double consciousness as, “a peculiar sensation this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others…” (143). In other words, black people have reached a state of double consciousness where they look at themselves in the way that white people look at them.

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Compare And Contrast Web Du Bois And Booker T Dubois

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Dr. W.E.B Du Bois uses this essay to sway the audience of the insufficiency of the statements that Mr. Booker T. Washington has made about African Americans being submissive of rights and the creation of wealth. Mr. Washington believes that the black race should give up and give into what the society norms were at that time sequentially just to have a certain right. Dr. Du Bois refused to believe that the black race should give up one right to get another right. Especially, when the white South had all rights without expecting to give up anything to have those rights.

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How Did Du Dubois Impact On The Philadelphia Negro

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Du Bois was born in 1868 and died at the age of 95 in 1963, and throughout his life, he wrote thousands of essays and published over twenty books, including The Philadelphia Negro in 1899, and The Souls of Black Folk in 1903 (Du Bois and Zuckerman (ed.), 2004). This essay will focus on The Philadelphia Negro, where Du Bois shares his findings on how black people in Philadelphia were living at the time. Bobo, an American sociologist, wrote the introduction for the 2007 edition of The Philadelphia Negro, and he states that Du Bois focused on several factors which affected the lives of black people, including their history of enslavement, racial discrimination, such as in education, and their economic circumstances, which he claims that Du Bois

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W. E. B Dubois Color Line Analysis

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Du Bois take on the Color Line Question: Class and Race in the Globalization Age William Edward Burghardt Dubois born in 1868 and died in 1963 was a Black American academic, activist for peace and civil rights, and socialist who wrote about sociology, philosophy, race equality, history and education. The evaluation of W.E.B Du Bois’s studies brings out social and intellectual initiatives especially his color line concept and its role to the history of African Americans (Butler, 2000). The color line concept is the role of racism and race in society and history. However, an analysis that is multidimensional which finds and evaluates the intersection of race together with class as modes of resistance and domination on national and international

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Du Bois described them as hopeless, voiceless, humiliated, disrespected, and ridicule and how society was too focused on politics and wealth. “Would America go poor if white people acknowledge black folk are human beings like any other?”

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Of Agency And The Failure Of Reconstruction By W. E. B. Du Bois

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Similarities Between The Stranger And W. E. B. Dubois

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Du Bois wanted to show people what it was to African American in America. Du Bois belive that African Americans was held back from achieving equality. Du Bois’s double consciousness was about always looking at oneself through the eyes of others. Du Bois claimed that African Americans struggle with multi-faceted conception of self “a double consciousness”. In this

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Hence, they crave peer acceptance in both, receiving genuine approval from neither” (West 139). Another renowned description of this phenomenon by Malcolm X is a metaphor stating that there are two kinds of slaves, the house negro and the field negro. Malcolm says that the house negroes love and protect the white master while field negroes hate and resist him, while this rhetorical device can be useful in highlighting differences amongst black people it’s a broad over generalization, and plain negligence to try and fit a black person in one of the two categories. Nevertheless, Malcolm creates a clear analysis of the issue of double-consciousness, showing that he understands the complexity of the matter at hand and that he is knowledgeable on the subject, hence utilizing ethos. While Malcolm X strongly believes that “black self-love and black self-determination [will make black people] free of the tension generated by ‘double-consciousness’”

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DuBois wants to communicate the metaphor of the veil, which is worn by all African Americans because their view of the world and potential opportunities are so different than that of white people. Although DuBois uses both double consciousness and the veil as two separate concepts, their meanings deeply intertwine. He sees the veil as a gift of sorts to African Americans because it provides them with a second sight, which could potentially be a blessing and a curse. Double consciousness makes it hard for African Americans to establish their identity, which was made harder by the negative white American view of

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Harlem Renaissance Research Paper

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Another term he used was ‘double consciousness’, which was how the African Americans viewed themselves as if they were looking at themselves in the eyes of the white people, their ‘masters’. Du Bois put into context that this is not the way America has to work anymore. For centuries, the African Americans were treated with hate and disrespect, they did not know how to view themselves after they received freedom. “Work, culture, liberty, - all these we need, not singly but together, not successively but together, each growing and aiding each, and all striving toward the vaster ideal that swims before the Negro people, the ideal of brotherhood (8).” After the powerful words of Du Bois, the African Americans started to view themselves differently, in a more respected manner.

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Double consciousness is a term coined by W.E.B. DuBois in his The Souls of Black Folk. He describes it as, “a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity”(2). The theory of double consciousness is the idea that the African American must navigate the voyages of life from within a form of “two-ness” (2), because he is both man, and black.

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