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Double Consciousness
Have you ever been misjudged, or misread, or been called something that you were not? Or have you been seen as something different through somebody else's eyes. They have developed an identity for you. This may, or may not be true, but on the inside, you know what your true identity is. Writers often write a story that they can personally relate to or represent it through the eyes and mouth of another. Sometimes writers, however, have been seen through the eyes of others to send a message completely different from what the writer wants to convey. The idea that is in their head may be different from what the reader reads, or they just represent something that they are not. This is the theory of double consciousness, the idea of being something else in someone's eyes than what they feel inside. Many writers from the past through today write about double consciousness but the way in which it is portrayed is very different for each writer.
Du Bois developed the idea of "double consciousness," "the 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"(Du Bois 11). It is the idea of being two things. Two people, two minds, two souls. It is like the concept of being and not being; being something literal and being something figurative. He sees it as being the real physical person and then being the person, the visual mental object in other's minds that they interpret or judge him as. He could never be seen as one. One could never be whole. He could be two things in one body; that is, he is what he is in his own body, and he is what others view him as in that same body. Because of that feeling of separation between the two, he could never feel himself or feel whole.
Du Bois appears to want to be able to overcome double consciousness. He wants people to see through that mental image that they have and see through to the real self. "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"(Du Bois 11). He knows his true self. He knows the reality of who he is. He wants people to see what he sees. He wants these two people to become the same person and be perceived as the same person. At the time of Du Bois, he was seen as two people. One was the misinterpreted, misunderstood, misjudged, black, "Negro," seen by the white man. The other was the one that he saw as well as all the other black men saw. This was the hard working, caring, loving, genuine, real "African American." This is what he sees when he looks in the mirror. This is what he feels in side. This is what his pride consists of. Other writers appear to hide or suppress their pride.
Nicolas Guillen has a different form of double consciousness. His is more or less unspoken. He has more than just double consciousness, he has multi consciousness. He has many different identities that he calls himself by. These identities are not necessarily what other people see him as. They are what he believes himself to be. This is where his multi consciousness comes from.
"I'm Yoruba, I'm Lucumi,
Mandingo, Congo, Carabali." (Guillen 17).
He has all of these different identities yet he claims to own only one of those identities. He starts with an original name, like any given name that you or I would be named at birth.
"I'm Yoruba…
Since I'm a Yoruba…"
He is claiming an identity here. This is his real self, the one that is inside. Then later in the poem he claims that he is "Lucumi, Mandingo, Congo," and "Carabali." Like Du Bois, he has several identities. He is given all of these different words and/or names, multi identities for an unclear reason. His writing is quite different from Du Bois however.
Unlike Du Bois, Guillen gives himself these identities. He develops these multi consciousnesses. Du Bois states that his idea of double consciousness is appointed for him. Others strap names and judgments while Guillen gives the names to himself. He has this fixation with having different identities and being several people at once.
Double consciousness is also depicted in Corregidora. Ursa's double consciousness is a little different from the rest of the writers. Ursa kind of lives two lives. One is in the eye of the public. All of the town's people know who she is and what she does. She gets around with the men quite a bit. She knows that this is her lifestyle and she also knows that the public knows that this is her lifestyle. She knows that she can look through their eyes and see what they see. Ursa also lives her private life. She has her true feelings about her life. She knows on the inside that what she does is not really self satisfying.
Ursa is very easy with the men. She sleeps with a lot of them because she believes that that is what she has to do. She was sexually abused when she was younger and thus has kind of adopted this submissive lifestyle. Many of the men that she gets with are aggressive, controlling and even abusive. They are very vulgar to her as well.
The double consciousness theory shows up many times. The town sees her as a whore, or promiscuous or just plain being easy. Inside though, she isn't happy with what she does. She doesn't like doing these things with all of the men, though she doesn't let them know that.
"Did I displease you so much?"
"Naw, you didn't displease me." (Jones 76).
"Does it feel good?"
"No."
"Really, Urs? Really no good?"
"Yes. I mean, I'm lying. Yes." (Jones 76).
Even though Ursa does not like it, she tells the men what they want to hear. Double consciousness is thus formed. They see something completely different about Ursa than what she really feels inside. The men believe that she is enjoying it. They think that she loves it and that she loves having sex with them. She knows what they see, hear and believe. Inside, however, Ursa doesn't feel the same way about herself as the men do. She doesn't want the sessions to continue. She gets no satisfaction from them and has a total opposite, contradicting viewpoint from what these men have.
Another writer that exhibits double consciousness is Langston Hughes. In his poem "Wait," it is shown really well. He views himself as a writer, but also feels that he represents everyone that is on the side columns of his poem. They are labels for many of the oppressed in the world. Yet, in the actual poem, he is speaking for himself.
"I am the Silent One,
Saying nothing"…
"I shall raise my hand
And smash the spines of you
Who shoot me."…(Hughes 47).
One would not necessarily know that he is speaking for the oppressed, such labels as; "Pickers, Negroes, Communists, Japanese, Black, Child, Labor, Strikers." This is where double consciousness can then be applied. More than just his identity is given to him. He has a feeling for both sides; what he truly is inside, and whom he represents on the outside. He seems himself through the eyes of others. He knows how they feel about him and his writing. This may be a consequence of his writing or this may be the reason for which he writes.
Many writers and narrators exhibit double consciousness when they write. Some know they do it but can do nothing about it. Some know it exists and want to change it. Some experience but do not want to change it. Some don't even know that they are actually showing double consciousness in their writings. Whatever it is, a message is conveyed in a manner in which the narrator or the author wanted it to. Whether they wanted the double consciousness theory to arise is not always up to them. It often shows up in the interpretation of the text. This is how meanings are derived from texts, and how we read deeper into the meaning-interpretation. We, the readers are at the other end of the double consciousness. We are the ones that complete the circuit. We provide the narrators and writers the eyes in which they seem themselves. Watching one's self through the eyes of others can show a person a whole knew side to themselves. One can learn a lot by looking at themselves through the eyes of another.
Bibliography
Du Bois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. New York W.W. Norton & Compamy, 1.
Guillen, Nicolas. The Great Zoo and Other Poems by Nicolas Guillen. New York Monthly Review Press, 17.
Hughes, Langston. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes.
New York Random House, 14.
Jones, Gayl. Corregidora. Boston Beacon Press, 175.
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