English 48b
February 8, 2008
Professor Lankford
Quote:
Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house…Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil” .
Summary:
It is quoted in “The Souls of Black Folk, Ch1” of Du Bois. He realized that his skin color made him separate from the world, especially the Whites.
Response:
When he was still a child, he realized that there was something different between him and the majority, the white people in America. He was rejected by a girl and received poor service in a store. He understood that he was treated so badly mainly because of his skin color and his race. He felt that he was like “a stranger” although he was in his “own house”. He did not want to be treated in this way. If he were born with white skin, he would have a much easier life.
In the quote, Du Bois explained that he was “ shut out from their word by a vast veil”. He was covered with a vast veil. He did not want to tear his veil off when the white people were thought to be superior. His depression about his race was shown is this quote. However, he did not want to be superior and the thing he only wanted was to receive fair treatment from the others.
Du Bois understood that he had to do something to make his life or Blacks’lives easier. He chose to have further education with a lot of college preparatory classes in high school. He wanted to use his academic knowledge to empower African American.
Luckily, Blacks received much better treatment in today’s society. People will be charged with discrimination if they provide particularly bad service to Blacks or if they are not willing to receive the Black’s credit card. Nevertheless, I admit that the imbalance of the social status between the Blacks and the Whites still has room to be improved.
3 comments:
0/20 Accuracy problems, Jimmy. If you look at the paragraph you're quoting from, your statement that "Actually, he wanted to be born in another race which is superior. He did not want to be born with a veil" is clearly not true. Please repost this journal if you want credit.
BTW we did discuss this exact paragraph at length in class on the day you were absent. I know there was no choice but to miss class that day (because of the TAP presentation). But it does mean you'll need to look much, much more closely at this difficult and challenging paragraph on your own.
0/20 Still no credit, still not satisfied. You need to read the WHOLE paragraph, Jimmy. You stop just before the next sentence -- which clearly says that he would never want to trade his culture/ethnicity for another (indeed that in some ways it makes him feel superior in terms of a deep "double-consciousness." Look at the language about clouds and skies, not just at veils. It is far more complicated than you admit here. You may also need to contact some students who were present for the 1-hour long discussion you missed in class due to the TAP presentation. I'm sorry to be so stubborn, but this is too fundamental a point to misunderstand.
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