W.E.B. DuBois "Of Alexander Crummel" - The Soul of Black Folks

Thèmes abordés

W.E.B. Dubois; black consciousness; 20th century; Soul of Black Folks; Alexander Crummel

Résumé du document

With the collection of fourteen essays The Soul of Black Folks , published in 1903, W.E.B. DuBois created a huge division within the movement of black protest in the USA. When the most influential leader of this movement, Booker T. Washington promoted educational training and
especially an "industrial education" as a means of "accommodation to the white supremacy; DuBois
asserted that the Black race had to be freed from the white hegemony through the rising of black consciousness within the black community. [...] This chapter entitled Of Alexander Crummel, is a tribute to an African American Episcopalian priest (1819-
1898). A man who wanted to uplift black people through scholarship and leadership while he had
little support; what led DuBois to admire him. The extract of 55 lines deals with the early years of
Alexander Crummel and his meeting with the author. It is preceded by a quotation of Tennyson
(1809-1892), a Victorian poet, a couple of lines of Sorrow songs, characteristic of the African
American slave culture. This excerpt shows the stylistic strategy used by DuBois to deliver his
message and the way he applied his theory through his tribute.

W.E.B. DuBois "Of Alexander Crummel" - The Soul of Black Folks

Extraits

[...] DuBois Alexander Crummel” - The Soul of Black Folks goal for his fellows. The main cyclical reference to religion was the use of a trinity, that is one of the main features of Christian religion. Many black people were religious at the time, so it also represented a means to appeal and make them feel affected by his story and consequently his message. He employed it to define blacks' life: as men and then as Americans via his and Crummel's examples. [...]

[...] DuBois Alexander Crummel” - The Soul of Black Folks With the collection of fourteen essays The Soul of Black Folks, published in 1903, W.E.B. DuBois created a huge division within the movement of black protest in the USA. When the most influential leader of this movement, Booker T. Washington promoted educational training and especially an “industrial education” as a means of “accommodation to the white supremacy; DuBois asserted that the Black race had to be freed from the white hegemony through the rising of black consciousness within the black community. [...]

[...] Through mixing literary forms such as poetry and autobiography and fiction, DuBois attempted to develop the ability of imagining of his readership and especially his poorly educated black readership. At first, poetry conveys amount of images “from the Dawn” l.1; “beyond the limit of the world”l.2; king returning from his wars”l.4. Those images clearly epitomize the way Alexander Crummel was depicted by DuBois. Among several examples: “Alexander Crummel [ ] amid its bustles and crush”l.10-1; stood, with dignity”l.11-2; black boy[ . [...]

[...] DuBois displays the priest's evolution in a corrupted world:“three temptations he met”l.3; full of obstacles: Valley of Humiliation and the Valley of the Shadow of Death”l.8-9 and especially the slavery: “seventy years ago saw puzzling vistas [ ] the slave-ship still groaned [ ] faint cries burdened the Southern breze” l.25-7. In addition the author also showed Crummel's success in outdoing shadows”l.30. BY going to school, despite what whites could do “farmers hitched ninety yoke of oxen to the abolition schoolhouse and dragged it into the middle of the swamp”l.53-4, Crummel became a man definable by sweetness of his strength and his hair blending of hope and truth of life”l.15-6, a “seer”l.18. So, the author again used an element in double way, which betrays his own duality. W.E.B. [...]

[...] In addition, this trinity was built in parallel with a temporal one red and “twilight”l.5-6. The latter can be interpreted literary as long as in the figurative sense: the development of life. The temporal trinity was then echoed “past”l.18; l.19 and “now”l.19. This repetition translates the author's will of making the reader really understand what he said but also to make him aware of those statements. Then, there was a forth trinity which dealt with American historical background. “Missouri Compromise”l.22; “Manilla and El Caney”l.22 which evoke that both Americans and African Americans share the same past. [...]