In the period of globalization, migration is a common phenomenon. One of the emerging trend in literature is to present the dilemma of immigrant self which includes issues like gender, race, religion, education, language, codes of behaviour and cultural practices. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a distinct South Asian writer with a well established position in literature. She belongs to the group of Indian writers who focus on postcolonial diasporic identity. As a writer, she has represented many genres such as poetry, short fictions, novels and essays. The experience of the immigrants in the United States forms the core of her fiction. Divakaruni stresses upon the concept of double consciousness in One Amazing Thing. The term, “Double Consciousness” was first used by W.E.B. DuBois in his book, The Soul of Black Folk. It is an individual’s feeling of having more than one social identity, which makes him/her difficult to develop a sense of self. Originally DuBois used this term in order to explain the minds of African-Americans living in the Southern United States. Today critics and researchers employ this term to bring out the in-between state or ‘two-ness’ felt by the characters. It is a study that promotes human understanding. Kulkarni quotes a passage from Lois Tyson to bring out how “Double Consciousness” is a feature in postcolonial Diaspora writing. Double Consciousness and Unhomeliness are the two features of postcolonial diasporas. Double Consciousness or
The metaphoric language is used to compare the blacks and the whites trying to live
Born February 23rd 1868 DuBois spent his life caught between two extremely unsettling times in the history of African-American culture. Living in the time after slavery but before the boom of the civil rights movement in the 1960’s Debois situated himself in such way that he was able to bring awareness about the unique experience felt by many African Americans during this time period. As an African American writer Sociologist, Civil Right Activist and a Pan -Africanist Dubois communicates the reality of his and his people’s struggle in the his paper Double-Consciousness and the Veil. He argues that “ there is a sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others”(Dubois,1903,pp.164). Defining what he would essentially coin as the powerlessness felt by many African Americans when they must decide subjectively and objectively weather to be African or American in a given situation.
Which is living in two worlds knowing your role within your culture, plus the one living in America. He theorized that racism affected identity that it weighted so heavy that it stopped them from achieving what they could as human beings. He saw beauty in black and wanted the African American community to be equal and have no limitations. “ We will not be satisfied to take one jot or tittle less than our full manhood rights” W.E.B Dubois. On the other hand, Booker T. Washington did not see things this way, he was more concerned in about promoting agricultural and industrial jobs to African Americans than to fully fight for all their American rights.
“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line…” These words were first uttered by W.E.B. DuBois in 1900 while in London as he addressed the first Pan African convention. These words have since gone on to be immortalized in plays, fiction , books and even popular political rhetoric but few realize these words were first merely spoken words. The power of the spoken word cannot underestimated nor its literary merit ignored. It is part of African American history and literary tradition.
Each of their writings influence society still today as people struggle with the issues of minority in America. The analysis of Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery and W.E.B. DuBois’ “The Souls of Black Folk” can help reader to better understand society’s views towards the acceptance of African Americans, their right to a fair education, and the right to vote. Ultimately, integration of society in america was key in obtaining peace.
1. What does Du Bois mean by the “double consciousness” of African Americans? What Du Bois meant by the “double consciousness” of African Americans is that they look at themselves through the eyes of others. “This double consciousness, this sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others, of measuring one soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” African Americans know that the rest of America see them as a lowly and controversial group of people because they were once viewed as a piece of property and not a human being. Now that they are freedmen, America doesn’t know what to think about them.
The NAACP’s primary goal during Du Bois’ time was to invalidate the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson. He was fond of Booker T. Washington, mentioned earlier, and many of his own views surrounded the concept of double consciousness. Du Bois believed that as a result of Plessy v. Ferguson African Americans began to judge themselves based on white standards, ultimately leading to the internal acceptance of inferiority. He describes the state of double consciousness as, “a peculiar sensation this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others…” (143). In other words, black people have reached a state of double consciousness where they look at themselves in the way that white people look at them.
Another term he used was ‘double consciousness’, which was how the African Americans viewed themselves as if they were looking at themselves in the eyes of the white people, their ‘masters’. Du Bois put into context that this is not the way America has to work anymore. For centuries, the African Americans were treated with hate and disrespect, they did not know how to view themselves after they received freedom. “Work, culture, liberty, - all these we need, not singly but together, not successively but together, each growing and aiding each, and all striving toward the vaster ideal that swims before the Negro people, the ideal of brotherhood (8).” After the powerful words of Du Bois, the African Americans started to view themselves differently, in a more respected manner.
Discussion Questions Part two The Concept of Double Consciousness as Described by Du Bois For many years until only about a few years ago, African Americans have had many difficult experiences as they have searched for their true cultural identity in the American society. The common method of identification of African Americans was their black skin color, hence the name Negros, blacks, and colored people. The African Americans were poor, and discriminated by the rich white people that forced them to adopt a new cultural identity and to be assimilated by the dominant culture while at the same time struggling to maintain their original cultural identity.
To drive back and forth between two identities The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian has two main settings, the Pacific Northwest towns of Wellpinit and Reardan. The contrast of the two different settings, a poor Indian reservation on the one hand and a wealthy white community on the other, has a lot to say for the main character in the book, Arnold Spirit Jr. There can be a lot behind to main settings in a book, and that is what I am going to analyze in this essay.
Within the context of African American literature, there is a common portrayal of a self-conscious narrator who takes on a quest for his or her own self-definition. This portrayal is frequently led by the so-called mulatto, a character of mixed background who is passing and has this ability to be able to cross over the coloured line to the white side. However, this white passing comes with a heavy internal conflict and this struggle for self-identity is captured in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. James Weldon Johnson epitomizes the struggles that a mixed-race protagonist would experience as he crosses the social boundary from the coloured side to the white side. Through this portrayal of a mixed race coloured man, Johnson is able to portray two well established literary troupes within African American literature: the tragic mulatto and the ex-slave narrative.
There is a transformation in the image of women characters in the last four decades. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is one of the famous contemporary Indian English writers. Her novels give
Her personas differ by the community she interacts with, whether it be Garden Heights or Williamson Prep; she must adjust accordingly to the social norms. By constantly performing double consciousness in attempts to prove her belongingness to both communities, Starr sacrifices her unified identity to achieve social inclusion. Unlike her White upper-class counterparts at Williamson and African American middle to low-class counterparts in Garden Heights, Starr’s identity is multifaceted. Starr utilizes double consciousness so often to the point where Williamson Starr and Garden Heights Starr and two designated people with different personalities, speech patterns, as well as musical and fashionable interests. Though some may argue that it deems unnecessary to perform double consciousness on a daily basis, Starr utilizes double consciousness to counteract the cultural racial oppression, or to disprove the essentialist notions involving her background, symbolizing the corrupt race-based system that restricts minorities from expressing their own cultural
One Amazing Thing. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. USA: Hyperion, 2009. 209pp. Under the rubric of Commonwealth Literature, there is always a bewildering array of overlapping and intersecting experiences between ‘home’ and ‘abroad’.
Double consciousness is a term coined by W.E.B. DuBois in his The Souls of Black Folk. He describes it as, “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”(2). The theory of double consciousness is the idea that the African American must navigate the voyages of life from within a form of “two-ness” (2), because he is both man, and black.