Double-Consciousness Under the White Gaze - 875 Words

Double-consciousness under the White Gaze in Maud Martha The theme of double-consciousness was first defined by Du Bois in The Souls of the Black Folk. He put the term â€Å"double-consciousness† in a world which 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, of measuring one s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from†¦show more content†¦No need for weapons, physical violence or prohibition, it takes only a surveillant gaze to humble anyone, to make them the overseers of themselves. Luckily, Martha was a woman with artistic sensibility. Although living an ordinary life in a racist world, still she can find beauty and dign ity in her life. When she spared the mouse, she experienced a new cleanness in her because â€Å"she had not destroyed. In the center of that simple restraint was—creation. She had created a piece of life. It was wonderful.†(Brooks 1667) This is a prelude revealing that her subjectivity was budding. Later when she gave birth to a daughter, her subjectivity was much improved by this motherhood—she did create a new life who was totally dependent on her at that time. At the beauty salon, she was shocked that the salon owner Mrs. Johnson just put up with a white saleswoman’s humiliation of referring them as â€Å"niggers†. It is not difficult to associate to what happened when Martha went to millinery with this. She decided against the hat even though the owner promised to cut price, and this lack of manners was attributed to her skin color by the salesgirl. â€Å"Black—oh,black--† Her subjectivity is helpful yet not strong enough to figh t everything. When Paul was laid off she went to work as a house maid in the Burns-Coopers’, she experienced that white gaze even more violently because the white woman Mrs. CoopersShow MoreRelatedThe Great Gatsby And 1984 Analysis1927 Words   |  8 Pagesoppress and exploit the proletariat through false consciousness. Both Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and George Orwell’s 1984 establishes societies that explores the Capitalism and Totalitarianism. George Orwell does that by setting 1984 in a futuristic totalitarian regime where the proletariat is under absolute control by the Party in order to eternalize their power over its citizens. Fitzgerald, in The Great Gatsby, describes the false consciousness imposed on the lower class of New York duringRead MoreCharacter Analysis of Helga Crane in Nella Larsen ´s Quicksand2961 Words   |  12 Pagesrepressed their sexual desires so that white America would perceive them as respectable. In its fight for equa lity, the black social elite wanted women to emulate the conventions of mainstream society. Maintaining a good image was intended not only to produce change within the race, but also to combat white stereotypes that caused discrimination against black people. Thus, described as primitive and promiscuous since slavery, black women hid their sexuality under socially accepted behavior. But, asRead MoreI Will Be Exploring The Short Film Surviving Sabu Which Was Written And Directed By Ian Iqbal Rashid In 19982740 Words   |  11 Pagesrepresented’.2 White American actor Joseph Calleia as ‘Buldeo’ in ‘The Jungle Book’ Sabu Dastagir was an Indian actor who appeared in many Hollywood films throughout the 1940’s. Dastagir was born in India and scouted by an American film crew. It would have been an extremely rare experience to see a person of colour take a lead role during this time, for instance in The Jungle Book Dastagir is almost exclusively the only Indian actor. All the other main characters are played by white actors in ‘blackface’Read More Form Versus Chaos Essay2882 Words   |  12 Pageswithin the fabric of our individuality. This is why â€Å"man is defined by his relation to the world and by his relation to myself â€Å" (Sartre BN 347). We become merely a shadow of the Other’s consciousness, written by the Other’s freedom—the in-itself closing on the for-itself. I will remain as a consciousness, unaware of my being until the presence of another complicates the situation, establishing a contingency based on the Other’s subjectivity. Such objectification compromises my independenceRead MoreAnalysis Of The Sound And The Fury Essay2354 Words   |  10 Pagesexamines Faulkner’s â€Å"The Sound and The Fury,† from the perspective of the feminist geography. It will explore the spatial experiences of the three Compton women; Mrs. Compson, Caddy, and her daughter Miss Quentin, who are portrayed in the story as under patriarchy. The article also examines the relationship between gender, space, and self in the novel. Although the story is narrated by male charac ters, the three Compton women are seen as an essential part in the novel. One can also say the mother-daughterRead MoreSexual Affronts and Racial Frontiers French Indochina and the Lover2642 Words   |  11 Pagesplace that imposed French models for schools, hospitals, and the army. Colonists began developing infrastructures which facilitated the exportation of raw material to metropolitan France. French Indochina It was a colony of commerce which was under the French rule in the 1860s and in the 1870s the Europeans began to settle here, in 1900 approximately 91 thousand settlers were classified European in the Indies. The metis population is also included in this estimate. Race and the Education ofRead MoreEssay on Jungian Psychology and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness6193 Words   |  25 Pagesdarkness at the heart of Africa, taking its narrator, Marlow, on an underworld journey of individuation, a modern odyssey toward the center of the Self and the center of the Earth. Ego dissolves into soul as, in the interior, Marlow encounters his double in the powerful image of ivory-obsessed Kurtz, the dark shadow of European imperialism. The dark meditation is graced by personifications of anima in Kurtz’ black goddess, the savagely magnificent consort of the underworld, and in his porcelain -skinnedRead More Outside the Teaching Machine by Gayatri Spivak2753 Words   |  11 Pagesactually binds Spivak and Said into a singular theoretical program is their readiness to question the ideological motivation for the Western representation of the Other—be it the Orient, colonized, or the subaltern. More insidiously, the imperialistic gaze that has coexisted with the growth of European epistemologies has been internalized by the non-Western Others to such a degree that there is a real danger that the East’s perception of itself has been permanently altered. Thus building on Said’s methodologyRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem Snow White 2692 Words   |  11 Pages SNOW WHITE Prologue: The Seed The stars glitter coldly, the frozen lake shines icily, the Queen looks on regally. Her hair is a star-filled night dotted with grey; her eyes are a cool, azure blue. A gleaming, nefarious smile lingers on her tightly drawn lips. Rise. She says, and a huntsman in front of her clambers to his feet. The huntsman is not at his best. He s haggard with traces of brown stubble appearing on his dark flesh. His usually lush hair is unkempt. My Lady, The huntsmanRead MoreThe Last Samurai: Hollywood and Orientalism2947 Words   |  12 Pagesbeen replaced by latent orientalism that is potentially planted in the sub-consciousness of the viewers. (Scurry 9) In other words, Orientalism knows influences its audience sometimes without them even realizing or recognizing they are being influenced. In the film The Last Samurai we see the embodiment of many orientalist characteristics. First, the film has typical â€Å"Japonerserie† stereotypes. Second, it has the typical white male protagonist savior who has superior abilities and authority over characters