What is double consciousness? how does John Black experience it ?

Question

What is double consciousness? how does Black John experience it ? web du bois 1868-1963

Answer 1

When W.E.B. Du Bois refers to 'double consciousness', he is referring in part to the psychology of the outsider. Everybody has a self-image; a sense of who they are, what they can do, their values and how they fit into the world. Du Bois argues that someone who is marginalized has in addition a second set of ideas about the same things - those that are imposed from the outside.

This creates what he calls a 'double consciousness': an awareness of what you are and a very different awareness of what other people see you as in contrast to that. His moving story in "The Souls of Black Folk" called 'Of the Coming of John' could be considered an illustration of that idea in part.

The main character, the black John, starts at first just like all the other black folk where he lives. He has no high aspirations or ideas... instead he simply believes the lies perpetrated by whites where he lives and has very low expectations for himself. At this point, he has a single consciousness - the one imposed on him from the outside.

After he spends much of his life away at school, he develops other ideas. Having toiled and won much knowledge, he knows better than anyone what his capabilities are. And he knows all too well that they far exceed those he bought into in his youth. He knows from direct experience that he is a person, not instrinsically inferior to any other person, and in some ways better than a number of them. Yet he also knows that he can't just go ahead and sieze that equality... he must (at least to some extent) 'play by the rules'. He has developed a double consciousness.

This becomes all the more pronounced when he returns to his former home. While he knew that his own self-image had changed and grew, he had forgotten how limited were those of his friends and family at home. He was different, and because they were part of the system, even they had trouble accepting it. His double consciousness has a pronounced manifestation during that celebration that they try to throw for him - as he tries to communicate his deepest hopes, ideals, and dreams, he might as well be babbling in a foreign tongue. Though his community means well for him, they can't accept his new (liberated) consciousness.

Du Bois is a very good read. Thanks for helping refresh that in my mind! Peace.

Answer 2

Of The Coming Of John

Answer 3

There's only ONE honest and TRUE "self". Anything else, even a perception of anything else is a lie.