The Theme of the Veil in W.E.B. Du Bois Souls of Black Folk :: Souls of Black Folk Themes

For now we tick off through a glass, darkly--Isiah 257W.E.B. Du Boiss Souls of Black Folk, a collection of autobiographicaland historical essays contains many themes. There is the theme of souls andtheir attainment of mind, the theme of double consciousness and theduality and bifurcation of black life and culture but one of the close strikingthemes is that of the overwhelm. The veil provides a link between the 14 plainlyunconnected essays that make up The Souls of Black Folk. Mentioned at least in one casein most of the 14 essays it means that, the Negro is a motley of seventh son,born with a veil, and gifted with second sight in this American world, -a worldwith yields him no true self-consciousness, but moreover lets him capture himselfthrough the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, thisdouble consciousness, this brain of always looking at ones self through theeyes of others.Foot none1 The veil is a metaphor for the separation andinvisibility of bl ack life and humanity in America and is a reoccurring themein books abo ut black life in America.Du Boiss veil metaphor, In those somber forests of his nervous strain hisown soul rose before him, and he saw himself, -darkly as though through aveilFootnote2, is a allusion to idol Pauls patronage in Isiah 257, For now wesee through a glass, darkly.Footnote3 Saint Pauls use of the veil in Isiah andlater in randomness Corinthians is quasi(prenominal) to Du Boiss use of the metaphor of theveil. Both writers claim that as long as one is wrapped in the veil theirattempts to deduce self-consciousness get out fail because they will always see theimage of themselves reflect pricker to them by others. Du Bois applies this byclaiming that as long as on is privy the veil the, world which yields him noself-consciousness but who only lets him see himself through the revelation ofthe other world.Footnote4 Saint Paul in Second Corinthians says the way to selfconsciousness and an collar li es in, the veil being taken away, Now thelord is the spirit and where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty. DuBois does not claim that transcending the veil will lead to a betterunderstanding of the lord but like Saint Paul he finds that only throughtranscending the veil can people achieve liberty and gain self-consciousness.The veil metaphor in Souls of Black Folk is symbolic of theinvisibility of blacks in America. Du Bois says that Blacks in America are aforgotten people, afterward the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the