LIT 327

W.E.B DuBois’ Theory on the “Double Consciousness” & Conflict/Radical Marxist Theory as it applies to the Novel – A Lesson Before Dying

DuBois’ theory on the “Double Consciousness” states, “After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, 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, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,--an American, a Negro; two warring souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,--this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self.” This theory states that as a black man, one has no choice but to look at oneself through the eyes of others, “others” being the rich and powerful, the superior – white people. The way the rich and powerful sees you, as a black man, is the way society views you. A black man must always take into consideration the views and perception of the superior, rich and powerful in the American world. This is not to say that he should disregard his own views, but the double conscious is this – he must think of himself through the eyes of the white man – as inferior, as below them, as uneducated, weak, unequal, and less than a man. Then he must also think of himself as a black man for himself, how he views himself – as a man, a strong black man, an intelligent black man, as an equal