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Analysis Of The Souls Of Black Folk, By W. E. B. Du Bois

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Written at the opening of the twentieth century, after the relative failure of federal Reconstruction efforts and during accelerating national tensions regarding race relations, The Souls of Black Folk is a complex work of philosophy, history, sociology, political theology, and literary creativity. Structurally linked by a few recurrent metaphors (soul, veil, double-consciousness), the book consists of fourteen distinct essays that together present W. E. B. Du Bois’s analysis of conditions in the United States. Du Bois pays special attention to the challenges facing black and white citizens in their interrelations but also poses a sharp critique of the spiritual and economic directions of the United States as a whole. Race figures as a central concern in the work, …show more content…

He calls this tradition “the sole American music” and “the singular spiritual heritage of the nation and the greatest gift of the Negro people.” Although much of the music he draws upon here originates in the tradition of the black church, Du Bois’s focus is more broadly metaphoric, pointing again toward spirituality as a philosophical category of shared humanity rather than a specifically Christian concept. The political theology and philosophy of The Souls of Black Folk is especially striking in the humanistic emphasis of Du Bois’s “prophetic” call in “The Afterthought.” His closing political challenge is addressed to the nation as he reasserts the power of reason as the starting point for social action: “Thus in Thy good time may infinite reason turn the tangle straight, and these crooked marks on a fragile leaf be not indeed.” The God to whom these lines is directed is, tellingly, “the Reader”: Du Bois to the end keeps his eyes on history and the thought and actions of human

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