Tag Archives: W.E.B. Du Bois

How She Feels

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In the excerpt from the book Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson advocates for the abandonment of social constructions and institutions as a step towards reconnecting with reality as individuals. He proposes that individuals should detach themselves from the unnatural world of sciences and books, which have led to the development of industrialization and capitalism, in order to reveal their ability to truly see nature in the way of the poet. This poet is able to become the “transparent eye-ball” which possess the power to see fragments with clarity by renouncing its contrived identity (4).

Zora Neale Hurston in “How it Feels to be Colored Me” applies Emerson’s philosophy to her own life and demonstrates her success in denying the preconceptions that are held by society in order to reveal her true self which she calls “the unconscious Zora of Eatonville” (3) although she admits that she can only be this Zora “at certain times” (4). She denotes a constraint in Emerson’s argument as she emphasizes that her ability to become and feel enlightened is only temporary and therefore limited.

W.E.B. Du Bois emphasizes in the excerpt from The Souls of Black Folk the limitations he experiences with Emerson’s idealized philosophy. He introduces the concept of “double consciousness” and his inability to isolate how one views oneself from how others view oneself because of his desire to live within society (5). Du Bois hopes to be appreciated by society and desires comfort with his identity regardless of his race or skin color.

While Du Bois proposes that this feeling of comfort will transpire from social equality, Emerson believes that equality can only be achieved by reconnecting with nature and denying society entirely. Hurston on the other hand recognizes her ability to alternate between the two opposite states when desired and implies that comfort can be achieved through a matter of choice. Her ability to choose whether to ignore her preconceived identity is enough to bring her comfort and empower herself on an everyday basis. Although Hurston may also hope for social equality in the future as does Du Bois, she has found a way to live in a way that is comfortable to her until Du Bois’ ideal may be fulfilled through the utilization of Emerson’s transcendentalist philosophy. Hurston’s more optimistic approach to her situation neither neglects either of the two arguments and instead is able to provide her with the ability to decide how she feels and recognize her ability to change it.

Reflections

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In his essay Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson describes how humans have lost contact with nature and the importance of reconnecting with it in order to better understand themselves. Throughout the piece, he draws on transcendentalist ideology to prove his point, emphasizing the divine aspects of nature that “few adult persons” can see. Furthermore, he stresses the failure of science to identify a “theory of nature” and says that past attempts to do so have only resulted in further division and hatred amongst the human population. The crux of his argument is the idea that by immersing himself in nature, he is able to transcend  “mean egotism”, shedding societal values, preconceived notions, desires, identity, gender, race, nationality, and class in order to become one with nature. He takes the form of a “transparent eye-ball” and is able to see and understand all without being seen. He is above racial, religious, and other man-made distinctions.

Whereas Emerson is empowered by sight when he becomes a “transparent eye-ball”, many African American writers from this period and afterward seem to be burdened by sight — both in the ways that they are seen by other (especially white) people and in the ways they have started to view themselves as a result. They are seen as “object[s]” (Fanon, 257), as savages (Fanon, 261), as intellectually inferior (DuBois), or as pitiable (Hurston). Many of them describe the weight of having to exist on two or three different planes, of existing both as their true selves and as a black person in a racist society. Despite differences in the ways they describe and think about this issue, discrimination does contribute to the sense that they are being held back from reaching their fullest potential. In Fanon’s words “I am a master and I am advised to adopt the humility of the cripple (265), or, as Hurston sarcastically puts it, “It is thrilling to think–to know that for any act of mine, I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame. It is quite exciting to hold the center of the national stage, with the spectators not knowing whether to laugh or to weep.” (Hurston) Moreover, they are hurt by the internalization of these messages by themselves and by other black people. Fanon describes being rejected by other black people as they make efforts to assimilate or even become white, not wanting their efforts to be tainted by him. Even Hurston, who claims to “have no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored” admits to feeling the effects of discrimination and of being seen as a race before being seen as an individual.

For these authors, empowerment then is found not in seeing, but in learning to unsee themselves in the narrative that has been forced upon them as black Americans. For DuBois and Fanon, that means discussing the limitations that have been systematically placed on black people and actively working to counteract them. For Hurston, it means shedding race entirely and refusing what she perceives to be sympathy over the slavery that her ancestors endured. However, for all of them, it means persevering, being successful, and proving racist Americans wrong through their success.

Emerson’s ability to become a “translucent eyeball”, despite his insistence that doing so extinguishes such distinctions as “master [and] servant”, is an ability largely and unwittingly based in his own privilege. It’s not that these types of experiences are inherently exclusive, but that it is easier for Emerson to shed his identity and ignore the tensions surrounding race relations in the United States as a person who is not only exempt from racial discrimination but benefits from it. Whereas Emerson and Hurston (in different ways) seem ready to move past the issue of race in the United States, for many people, such as Fanon and Dubois, examining race is key to achieving the type of understanding that Emerson seems to be seeking.

Emerson Calls, Du Bois Answers

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In the introduction to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature, he implores his audience to resist blind acceptance of conceits of nature from the past, to refrain from putting “the living generation into masquerade out of its [the past’s] faded wardrobe.” Emerson would rather have his readers forge an independent relationship with nature. He says “There are new men, new lands, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship.” Implicit in his call to action, however, is an assumption of freedom. In order to forge an independent path in nature with any effectiveness, one must have the power which comes from wealth, property, etc. Of course, W.E.B. Du Bois did not write The Souls of Black Folk as a response to Emerson’s Nature. But read with Emerson’s call to action in mind, The Souls of Black Folk can be seen as an answer which makes even clearer how necessary to Emerson’s thesis is freedom. Du Bois shows us that for a significant portion of the population, it is simply impossible to escape into the forest to be one with nature, and have the sort of spiritual experience Emerson prescribes.

For Emerson, “In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.” He makes clear the connection between the spirit of nature and that of the man; that is, if one is facing adversity, the landscape he regards will take on melancholy colors. It would seem in a reading of the first chapter of Nature that Emerson has rarely felt such alienation from his landscape. Nature for him is boundless, and all waiting for his eye to pass over it. Du Bois speaks little of the natural world in the first chapter of The Souls of Black Folk, but the mentions he does make communicate a radically different relationship.

Throughout his text, Du Bois refers to the veil which separates the African American man from society. He is forced apart from the world around him, left to regard both the natural and man-made worlds through a veil which acts as a wall. For a time, Du Bois tells us, he was able to live above the veil, in a blue sky, which, just as Emerson promised it to be, “was bluest when I could beat my mates at examination-time, or beat them at a foot-race, or even beat their stringy heads.” As Du Bois finds ways to inch closer to the power and freedom which will allow him access to the world as Emerson sees it, the sky around him grows richer, and inspires greater joy. However, after a time, living above the veil was no longer possible.

“The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above.” Here, we can see that a mature Du Bois’ conception of nature comes not from a freedom to roam in it, nor even, maybe, from the writings of the generations before him, but only from within a prison of society’s creation, and the limits to his vision its windows present. The streak of blue sky represents freedom for Du Bois, but only insofar as it is unattainable.

It is most clear in his writings that Du Bois is not able to gain full access to the world around him, and the freedoms it offers, from beyond this veil. His viewpoint stands in stark contrast to the description in the climax of Emerson’s argument in Nature’s first chapter. Here, Emerson is entirely unencumbered. He is “a transparent eye-ball”; there is nothing in the way of his taking in all of the land before him, or further, from regarding it as his own based on his singular ability to truly see it. Surely, we cannot suppose based on his writings that Du Bois conceives of a time where he will ever have such an experience. And so, his thesis serves as an answer to Emerson’s call.