Souls Of Black Folk Essay Research Paper

Souls Of Black Folk Essay, Research Paper

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The Different Conceptions of the

Veil in The Souls of Black Folk quot;For now we see through a glass,

darkly&quot

*P*-Isiah 25:7*/P*

W.E.B. Du Bois’s *I*Souls of Black Folk*/I*, a

collection of autobiographical and historical essays contains

many themes. There is the theme of souls and their attainment

of consciousness, the theme of double consciousness and the

duality and bifurcation of black life and culture; but one of

the most striking themes is that of "the veil." The

veil provides a link between the 14 seemingly unconnected

essays that make up *I*The Souls of Black Folk*/I*. Mentioned

at least once in most of the 14 essays it means that,

"the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil,

and gifted with second sight in this American world, -a world

with 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."*A href=#Footnote1B

name=Footnote1A*Footnote1*/A* The veil is a metaphor for the

separation and invisibility of black life and existence in

America and is a reoccurring theme in books about black life

in America.

*br* Du Bois’s veil metaphor, "In those somber forests

of his striving his own soul rose before him, and he saw

himself, -darkly as though through a veil"*A

href=#Footnote2B name=Footnote2A*Footnote2*/A*, is a allusion

to Saint Paul’s line in Isiah 25:7, "For now we see

through a glass, darkly."*A href=#Footnote3B

name=Footnote3A*Footnote3*/A* Saint Paul’s use of the veil in

Isiah and later in Second Corinthians is similar to Du Bois’s

use of the metaphor of the veil. Both writers claim that as

long as one is wrapped in the veil their attempts to gain

self-consciousness will fail because they will always see the

image of themselves reflect back to them by others. Du Bois

applies this by claiming that as long as on is behind the

veil the, "world which yields him no self-consciousness

but who only lets him see himself through the revelation of

the other world."*A href=#Footnote4B

name=Footnote4A*Footnote4*/A* Saint Paul in Second

Corinthians says the way to self consciousness and an

understanding lies in, "the veil being taken away, Now

the lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the lord is

there is liberty." Du Bois does not claim that

transcending the veil will lead to a better understanding of

the lord but like Saint Paul he finds that only through

transcending "the veil" can people achieve liberty

and gain self-consciousness.

*br* The veil metaphor in *I*Souls of Black Folk*/I* is

symbolic of the invisibility of blacks in America. Du Bois

says that Blacks in America are a forgotten people,

"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."*A href=#Footnote5B

name=Footnote5A*Footnote5*/A* The invisibility of Black

existence in America is one of the reasons why Du Bois writes

*I*Souls of Black Folk*/I* in order to elucidate the

"invisible" history and strivings of Black

Americans, "I have sought here to sketch, in vague,

uncertain outline, the spiritual world in which ten thousand

Americans live and strive."*A href=#Footnote6B

name=Footnote6A*Footnote6*/A* Du Bois in each of the

following chapters tries to manifest the strivings of Black

existence from that of the reconstruction period to the black

spirituals and the stories of rural black children that he

tried to educate. Du Bois in *I*Souls of Black Folk*/I* is

grappling with trying to establish some sense of history and

memory for Black Americans, Du Bois struggles in the pages of

the book to prevent Black Americans from becoming a Seventh

Son invisible to the rest of the world, hidden behind a veil

of prejudice, "Hear my Cry, O God the reader vouch safe

that this my book fall not still born into the

world-wilderness. Let there spring, Gentle one, from its

leaves vigor of thought and thoughtful deed to reap the

harvest wonderful."*A href=#Footnote7B

name=Footnote7A*Footnote7*/A*

*br* The invisibility of Black existence is a recurring theme

in other books about Black history. In Raboteau’s book slave

religion is called, "the invisible institution of the

antebellum South."*A href=#Footnote8B

name=Footnote8A*Footnote8*/A* Raboteau tries to uncover and

bring to light the religious practices of Black slaves, he

tried to bring their history out of the veil. Rabatoeu writes

how religion for slaves was a way in which, "slaves

maintained their identity as persons despite a system bent on

reducing them to a subhuman level… In the midst of slavery

religion was for the enslaved a space of meaning, freedom,

and transcendence."*A href=#Footnote9B

name=Footnote9A*Footnote9*/A* Because slave religion was an

invisible institution hidden by a veil from white slave

masters it provided a way in which slaves could resist social

death. The history of Black women is also the history of a

people made invisible; hidden behind the veil. Bell Hooks in

her study of Black women and feminism tries to bring to light

the forgotten past of black women who have also been hidden

behind a veil, " Traditionally, scholars have emphasized

the impact of slavery on the black male consciousness,

arguing that black men more so than black women were the real

victims of slavery."*A href=#Footnote10B

name=Footnote10A*Footnote10*/A* To Bell Hooks the veil which

makes black women invisible to white society is made from an

inseparable cloth woven from the threads of racism and

sexism. The Black reconstruction period is another area in

which scholars have grappled with the consequences of the

veil which has hidden the history of black striving and

struggle from view. Eric Foner’s book on the reconstruction

was the first major study of the period since Du Bois’s book

on the period fifty years earlier.*A href=#Footnote11B

name=Footnote11A*Footnote11*/A* The reconstruction which

Foner terms America’s unfinished revolution could also be

called American invisible revolution due to the lack of

scholarship on the area.

*br* The most striking examples of the theme of the veil and

invisibility is in literature about Blacks struggling with

their identity and with oppression. In *I*Beloved*/I* Setha’s

rational for killing her child can not be understood by the

white police system which sentence her to prison. In Ralph

Ellison’s *I*Invisible Man*/I* the main character says,

"I am an invisible man, No I am not a spook like those

that haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood

movie ectoplasm’s. I am a man of flesh and bone, fiber and

liquids- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am

invisible understand because people refuse to see me."*A

href=#Footnote12B name=Footnote12A*Footnote12*/A* Ralph

Ellison’s invisible man like the history of black women,

slavery, reconstruction, and many other elements of black

life are hidden behind "the veil" making them

invisible to much of society.

*br* The veil is also a metaphor for the separation both

physically and psychologically of blacks and whites America.

Physically the veil separates blacks and whites through

Slavery, Jim Crow laws, economic inequality, and the

voluntary segregation that followed the end of the civil war.

The veil acts as a physical barrier that permanently brands

black Americans as an "other"; the veil is the

metaphorical manifestation of the train tracks that divide

the black and white parts of town. Du Bois in Chapter two

lays out the creation of the veil from the end of the civil

war to the failure of reconstruction. The following chapters

then tell of those who have acted to strengthen the veil such

as Booker T. Washington or who suffered behind the veil such

as the school children Du Bois taught.

*br* The veil also acts as a psychological barrier separating

blacks from whites. The theme of the psychological separation

of blacks and whites is a central metaphor of the book

starting with the first lines where Du Bois recalls his

encounters with whites who view him not as a person but as a

problem, "They half 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."*A

href=#Footnote13B name=Footnote13A*Footnote13*/A* The veil in

this case hides the humanity of blacks which has important

implications to the types of relations that developed between

blacks and whites. With their humanity hidden behind

"the veil" black and white relations at the time of

the writing of the *I*Souls of Black Folk*/I* were marked by

violence: draft riots in New York during the Civil War, riots

following the reconstruction period, the lynching of Blacks,

and the formation of the Klu Klux Klan.*A href=#Footnote14B

name=Footnote14A*Footnote14*/A*

*br* The theme of separation caused by the veil is repeated in

many other black texts. In Raboteau’s book slave religious

practices were separate from white religious practices.*A

href=#Footnote15B name=Footnote15A*Footnote15*/A* Although

many time slaves and their masters worshipped together

religion during the slavery period provided to very separate

things for master and slaves. For the master religion was a

way to justify slavery*A href=#Footnote16B

name=Footnote16A*Footnote16*/A* and for slaves religion

became a form of resistance and hope; a way to resist social

death. In Eric Foner’s book on reconstruction a veil

separated black and white interpretations of

reconstruction.*A href=#Footnote17B

name=Footnote17A*Footnote17*/A* For blacks reconstruction was

a time of hope and freedom; for whites reconstruction was a

time in which the north repressed a defeated region, with

ignorant former slaves, who unable to act constructively for

themselves were pawns of the northern intruders. The veil, a

metaphor for separation both physically and psychologically

hides the humanity of blacks, and created deep divisions

between the races.

*br* Du Bois in *I*Souls of Black Folk*/I* unlike other

blacks is able to move around the veil, operate behind it,