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

For now we watch through a glass, darkly--Isiah 257W.E.B. Du Boiss Souls of Black Folk, a collection of autobiographicaland diachronic essays contains many themes. There is the theme of souls andtheir attainment of cognizance, the theme of double consciousness and theduality and bifurcation of black life and culture but one of the some strikingthemes is that of the mist. The veil provides a link between the 14 patentlyunconnected essays that make up The Souls of Black Folk. Mentioned at least one timein most of the 14 essays it means that, the Negro is a secern 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 scarcely lets him hold 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.Footnote1 The veil is a metaphor for the separation and invisibleness of black l ife and population in America and is a reoccurring themein books abo ut black life in America.Du Boiss veil metaphor, In those somber forests of his melodic phrase hisown soul rose before him, and he saw himself, -darkly as though through aveilFootnote2, is a allusion to angel Pauls pull in in Isiah 257, For now wesee through a glass, darkly.Footnote3 Saint Pauls use of the veil in Isiah andlater in stake Corinthians is akin(predicate) to Du Boiss use of the metaphor of theveil. Both writers claim that as long as one is wrapped in the veil theirattempts to gain self-consciousness pull up stakes fail because they will always see theimage of themselves reflect tail end to them by others. Du Bois applies this byclaiming that as long as on is piece of tail 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 sense l ies 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, later on the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the