Two Page Lit Response: Of Our Spiritual Strivings

Siarra Williams
November 24, 2008
AP English III Period 11
Two Page Literary Response: Chapter 1, Souls of Black People

In the first chapter of the Souls of Black Folk by W.E. B. DuBois, he speaks of the slaves’ view of the status that they hold in the world. He speaks from a first person’s point of view of how he remembers the first time that he realized he was different from the other kids, in terms of his skin color. He also inferred that he was going to be like the white people when he gets older, when he began to talk about his future professions.
“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.” (DuBois Page 45) Dubois uses great detail to describe the way a Negro slave looks at himself. He uses a various amount of metaphors and words to connect the same idea that a Negro man does not have a unique definition for himself. The slave does not know how to view himself in a society that condemns him for the color of his skin before he even speaks. He is already discriminated against without having the opportunity to prove that he is more than what you see.
“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 Page 45) Dubois has a sassy tone when describing the American Negro slave. He starts off the statement by asking “One ever feels his two-ness.” It’s almost as though he states this already knowing you never have felt this man’s “two-ness.” It never occurred to you to see that he’s not just a slave, not just what you see. He continues by describing that this “two-ness” is hard to control and keep under way. For a man to have to decide which side of him he should allow to be seen by those surrounding him is time consuming if not aggravating at times. When a person has to conceal a piece of their identity, it becomes harder for them to find their true selves. It’s even harder when all society ever tells you is that you are worthless and you will never amount to anything. Not only does this “two-ness” pains him externally but internally is even worse. He has two thoughts and two ideas running through him and all he may ever get the chance to do is speak of one, if even allowed that.