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The Souls Of Black Folk Synthesis Essay

683 Words3 Pages

The novel, The Souls of Black Folk, written by W.E.B. Du Bois, illustrates the racial discrimination that was present amongst the whites and the African Americans following the Civil War. The readers follow Du Bois and the African Americans through their daily hardships of being people of color. Being a man of color himself, Du Bois, struggles existing amongst the two worlds; the world of white superiority and the world of cohesion as African Americans. Du Bois’ availability to these two worlds is known as “double-consciousness”, where he sees two sides of an idea. This ability can be both a blessing and a curse, and according to Du Bois he agrees, “He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face” (Du Bois 3). However, Du Bois' wish was not going to be granted easily due to the strong division between these two worlds known as the “color line” (Du Bois …show more content…

The white population could not understand the emotional and physical abuse the colored people were experiencing. This concept was known as living under a “veil”, since African Americans had such a different view then those of the white people. Du Bois shares a personal experience when a Southern girl refused to trade a visiting card with a man like himself. This event made Du bois realize how he was “different from the others” (Du Bois 3). Living with this veil, African Americans had to come to realization of their double-consciousness. They had to take into consideration how others felt about them and eventually just except the fact. Du Bois even expresses the feeling “of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others” (Du Bois 2). It was difficult for the African Americans to shut out those opinions of the white

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