Title: The Souls of Black Folk
Author: W.E.B. Du Bois

Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it. They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.

And yet, being a problem is a strange experience,—peculiar even for one who has never been anything else, save perhaps in babyhood and in Europe. It is in the early days of rollicking boyhood that the revelation first bursts upon one, all in a day, as it were. I remember well when the shadow swept across me. I was a little thing, away up in the hills of New England, where the dark Housatonic winds between Hoosac and Taghkanic to the sea. In a wee wooden schoolhouse, something put it into the boys' and girls' heads to buy gorgeous visiting-cards—ten cents a package—and exchange. The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card,—refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil. I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it in common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows. That sky was bluest when I could beat my mates at examination-time, or beat them at a foot-race, or even beat their stringy heads. Alas, with the years all this fine contempt began to fade; for the words I longed for, and all their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine. But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them. Just how I would do it I could never decide: by reading law, by healing the sick, by telling the wonderful tales that swam in my head,—some way. With other black boys the strife was not so fiercely sunny: their youth shrank into tasteless sycophancy, or into silent hatred of the pale world about them and mocking distrust of everything white; or wasted itself in a bitter cry, Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house? The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above.

After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,—a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is 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. One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.

This, then, is the end of his striving: to be a co-worker in the kingdom of culture, to escape both death and isolation, to husband and use his best powers and his latent genius. These powers of body and mind have in the past been strangely wasted, dispersed, or forgotten. The shadow of a mighty Negro past flits through the tale of Ethiopia the Shadowy and of Egypt the Sphinx. Through history, the powers of single black men flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness. Here in America, in the few days since Emancipation, the black man's turning hither and thither in hesitant and doubtful striving has often made his very strength to lose effectiveness, to seem like absence of power, like weakness. And yet it is not weakness,—it is the contradiction of double aims.

Erwartungshorizont for English Abitur Erhöhtes Anforderungsniveau Assignments

1. Summarize the Main Points of W.E.B. Du Bois' Excerpt from The Souls of Black Folk

• Identification of Central Theme

  • The experience of being perceived as a "problem" due to racial differences.

• Concept of Double-Consciousness

  • Explanation of living with a dual identity: American and Negro.

• Historical Context

  • Reference to the post-Emancipation period and its impact on Black identity.

• Emotional and Psychological Impact

  • Feelings of isolation, contempt, and the struggle for self-consciousness.

• Aspirations for Integration

  • Desire to merge Negro and American identities without loss or devaluation.

• Critique of Society

  • Examination of how society perpetuates the veil separating Black individuals from the broader community.

• Metaphorical Language

  • Use of metaphors like the veil and shadows to depict racial barriers.

2. Analyse the Concept of 'Double-Consciousness' as Presented in the Excerpt

• Definition and Explanation

  • Understanding double-consciousness as a state of dual identity.

• Origins and Influences

  • Historical and societal factors contributing to double-consciousness.

• Psychological Implications

  • Internal conflict and the struggle for self-understanding.

• Effects on Personal Identity

  • How double-consciousness shapes the narrator's perception of self.

• Literary Devices Used

  • Analysis of metaphors, symbolism, and narrative style to convey double-consciousness.

• Comparative Analysis

  • Comparison with other instances or theories of dual identity in literature.

• Impact on Social Interaction

  • How double-consciousness affects relationships with both Black and White communities.

3. Discuss the Significance of 'Double-Consciousness' in the Excerpt and Its Impact on the Narrator's Identity

• Central Role in Narrator's Experience

  • How double-consciousness defines the narrator's daily life and self-perception.

• Conflict Between Two Identities

  • Exploration of the tension between being American and Negro.

• Influence on Aspirations and Goals

  • How the dual identity affects the narrator's ambitions and sense of purpose.

• Societal Perception and Misunderstanding

  • The effect of external judgments on the narrator's self-esteem and actions.

• Resistance and Resilience

  • Narrator's response to double-consciousness, including resistance to assimilation and assertion of identity.

• Broader Implications for African American Identity

  • Significance of double-consciousness in the collective Black experience and its relevance to contemporary discussions on race.

• Literary Significance

  • The role of double-consciousness in shaping the narrative structure and themes of The Souls of Black Folk.