Final Look at the Souls of Black Folk

The final chapters of DuBois’ work center on the question of what he and other characters believe constitutes “the real world” in the years after emancipation. DuBois uses the story of the birth of his child to discuss the urge to protect life “behind the veil” and still pretend that life as a black man could be separate but equal in order to better enjoy life. The death of his son brings him crashing back to the reality that life can’t remain behind the veil. His knowledge that the humanity and emotion experienced at his son’s funeral were sacred experiences that any man ought to consider holy clashes bitterly with the idea that whites witnessing the procession must think little of him and his companions dressed up in their church finery. 

I was continuously interested in Du Bois’ use of symbolism, which  revolves around vision. The ‘‘veil’’ is his main metaphor for the distance and misconception between black and white Americans, and is responsible for the way African Americans see themselves as dualistic and distorted. Darkness generally symbolizes ignorance and despair, such as in the opening to ‘‘The Sorrow Songs’’; enslaved black people in the past are termed ‘‘they that walked in darkness.’’ Similar use of imagery seemed to concern impaired vision including haze, dimness, dusk, shadow, and mist. 

Du Bois first mentions the ‘‘veil” in his forethought and extends the metaphor throughout the text. The ‘‘veil” is a metaphoric film between black people and white America that obscures the true identity of black people. Du Bois attributes the confused dual identity of his people to the ‘‘veil,” which makes it impossible for blacks to see themselves in entirety as well. Du Bois extrapolates on his metaphor with extensive use of visual imagery, or the impairment thereof. Darkness, light, brightness, shadow, and haze appear throughout the text. In effect, according to Du Bois, difficulty in perception is fundamental to being African American. 

The Souls of Black Folk

W. E. B. DuBois establishes two focal ideas in the initial five chapters of The Souls of Black Folk. First, Dubois presents the historic “problem” of black identity and the “color-line” throughout not only America history but also international history. His argument extends up to the present to establish blacks as both American citizens and American victims. This “double identity” would be a continual problem for blacks and whites alike, according to DuBois.
Secondly, DuBois notes that while emancipation was noble, the lack of infrastructure to accommodate the release of hundreds of thousands of former slaves into the American economy developed a major disruption for the national and regional governments. Regardless of the creation of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which had as its charter the job of organizing the freed slaves and helping them assimilate into a capitalist and democratic society, without a method for measuring the ways in which blacks needed to be equipped for their newfound freedom, it was hard for the association to recognize and provide the fundamental information and preparation the freed men needed.
DuBois does not consider the Freedmen’s Bureau a failure, by any means. He describes both how the organization helped blacks advance in attaining education, pursuing the ownership of land, enjoying more civil rights, and where it was unable to help them as effectively in securing the vote, attaining equal political and judicial representation, changing centuries of prejudiced attitudes. The creation of the Freedmen’s Bureau created diverging opinions among politicians, who debated not only where the Bureau should operate within the national government but also what its functions were. The annual renewal of the Bureau’s charter was also the subject of heated arguments that revealed the confused reception of emancipation.

Overwhelming Freedom

Just by delving into his commonplace life as an African America in the mid eighteen-hundreds America, the reader becomes instantly introduced to the hardships that were associated with life in slavery. Unbeknownst to his own past, Booker T. Washington shares with us his lack of ancestry and how his family members were stripped of their human value when brought to America. Since basic human rights were stolen from slaves I felt the need to relate this piece back to Blade Runner, because the replicants’ sole purpose in “life” was to work and serve. As I continued to read, I was surprised at the lack of pessimism or angst that I would expect from a slave describing his life. What shocked me most was the relationship that some owners and slaves had with each other.
The beginning of this classic highlights the genuine kind personality of Booker T. Washington and his interaction with the world of slavery. I did not expect freedom to be such an intimidating experience for those who had been enslaved for so long. We constantly learn from the factual or historical point of view when discussing such issues as slavery, in which the fight for freedom seemed to be the only desire of slaves living in this time. I found it interesting how Booker T. Washington is allowing his readers to experience this revolutionary change through the eyes and minds of those it affected the most.

Against the "norm"

What interests me most as I read through The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker is the rapid development of the narrator. Readers are given the initial impression that this girl, or young woman, is basically naïve to the true meaning of the strike, and the dire consequences that come with being involved with a union. A union is never meant to be thought of as a game or as a fun event, but this young woman revels in the excitement and passion of the surrounding working women, without truly relating to the desperation that the majority of them face. As her experience with the union strike progresses, it affects the way she speaks about the situation, a passion seems to develop, and an attachment to those who need to be there, rather simply find the situation an interesting even to be a part of. Just as we see the maturity growth in this young woman, we see growth and change in the power or women in society. As we discussed in class, are women being pre-programmed for a life filled with days of raising children and completing routine household chores? The father proclaims his view by saying how he does not “think it’s a woman’s place to be hangin’ around street corners, fighting with rowdies and be taken to jail”(91-92). I like how the passionate response to her father’s words becomes symbolic of the entire women’s suffrage movement as she is maturing into her own sets of beliefs, away from predisposed ideas.

Dark to Light, Despair to Life

Erica Schweiger
Iron Mills Blog Entry
February 25, 2008
The first aspect in Life in the Iron Mills that I was drawn to is the way in which Rebecca Harding Davis uses evocative and descriptive language that allows the reader to become intertwined with the emotional tensions and struggles of the time in which her characters live. I felt like in just the second paragraph, in her description of “a little broken figure of an angel pointing upward from the mantel shelf…its wings covered with smoke,” Davis was able to portray how even a symbol of hope, glory, and light is being masked by what seems to be such a tragic way to live. What usually intrigues me about a story or novel is the way in which the plot portrays an inspirational theme or passionate response to a situation. For this realist novel, I was simply drawn to the way in which Rebecca Harding Davis seemed to want to profess that the quality of human life is worth so much more than what it was being used for in these lifeless and repetitive jobs. The human mind allows for so much more than to be institutionalized under this capitalistic type of labor and society. Trough the story of one family, under one old house, she divides the complexity of human nature with the life that this family is living. However, from this darkness, this “nightmare fog” (13), I like how Davis still manages to move into the light, providing a more inspirational ending point in which “God has sent the promise of Dawn”(65).

Judement Day in Kind Arthur's Court

Terminator Two Judgment Day focuses on the intrusion of technology in a world that cannot yet handle the severity of the changes in which this technology brings. Since I had previously seen this film I enjoyed discussing the possible similarities between Terminator Two and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. While the two media plots are alike in the sense that the terminator, as well as Hank, come from the future, they provide opposite views of how technology should be handled in the time period which they are relocated. Since Hank was placed in a time of simplicity, the opportunity presented itself for great improvement and achievement. Because the Yankee could not foresee the destruction, danger, or violence that technology could bring to an unprepared world, he acts as the opposite role of the terminator in Judgment Day. The terminator serves as the counterpoint to Hank since “he” was sent from the future to warn his own creator about the dangers that his future creations would bring. In the terminator, the unstoppable force that dominates, or that we are told dominates later in future, is the technology itself, created to surpass the intelligence of its own creators. However, when we relate The Terminator back to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, violence in human nature is increased and dominated through the inclusion of technological advancements.

Week 3

I find it interesting that the Yankee is still pressing democracy on people who are not prepared to accept this completely new form of government, where they are actually given rights and control over their own lives. While I can see that the Yankee would want all the glory of forming this famously productive type of government, it seems confusing to me that he would want a revolution against higher powers, especially since he has gained notoriety as “The Boss”. As the introduction of the seven knights is presented in the girl’s story, I wanted to recognize that seven if often distinguished as an important biblical number, further emphasizing the incorporation and significance the church has in the Yankee’s journey to a revolution. We are reminded the the Yankee has gained loyalty and respect, even fear from all when he is presented with Queen Morgan Lee Fay’s prisoners. His acts of kindness towards the prisoners, releasing those who do not deserve his or her incarceration, provide almost a religious aspect to the Yankee, almost adopting the label of savior. As a new savior, one not presented to civilization by the church, I believe Hank is beginning to cleverly pilfer the power that the Church is currently holding over this naïve society.
His belief in training the common man, to accept a new sense of self-right is an interesting them that continues with his attempt to refurbish this culture. I actually find it ironic that in the process of trying to create a democracy, Hank constantly rises higher and higher in the social status, almost dictating the people through mind games and trickery.