The Souls of Black Folk | Themes
Dualism
In ‘‘Of Our Spiritual Strivings,’’ Du Bois makes reference to the experience of ‘‘double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others.’’ This concept of dual identity appears throughout the text in nearly every essay and is central to the author's goal in making the African-American condition understood. Du Bois contends that African Americans experience a split in self-concept because they are regarded with ‘‘contempt and pity” by the majority of their fellow Americans. As both ‘‘Negro” and American, black...
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