Passage letter D is from W.E.B. DuBois’s Souls of Black Folk in the chapter The Coming of John. Four terms that stood out from the rest are as follows: the veil (and the precursor to double consciousness), oppression, sarcasm, and choked and narrow. The veil is the wrapping paper on the box of double consciousness, the gift that nobody ever wants. The transparent border in between John Jones and his previously opaque, singular life. The veil hides the grotesque truth of the real world… the white world. The veil is what has been placed over the eyes of almost every African American in the novel. Lack of education and a lack of experience are two key contributors to this sort of ignorance. It is not being said that black people did not know that the veil did not exist; what is being argued is that there was not a clear solution describing how to see past the veil on a large scale. The preconceived notion was that if you go off to get a higher education, you will be a worldly, happy young adult who will be able to compete in the world. John Jones experienced first hand the ramifications of these colorless aspirations that are glorified by black society. He realizes that being black in a world where the primarily white are educated is more than scholastically challenging. This unjustness pushed him to become one with the books, to become more educated than his white peers. He became consumed by the knowledge seeking process, only to face nothing but rejection and hate from all people alike. Every day, the world in his mind, this optimistic vision, became more black and white than ever before. The turning of every page acted as a step towards the crippling black reality of duality.
Oppression, as well as the rest of the terms, stem off from either the realization or the breaking through of the veil. Knowledge became the key that locked John Jones in the cell, rather than freeing him from it. Common day societal nuances such as men not calling Jones “Mister” bothered him after getting an education because he realized that there was an alternative to not being referred to as “Mister.” The days leading up to going off to college were filled with such optimism and pride, only to be shattered by the passing of time. Not being allowed to use white facilities was no longer an unexplained fact of life. The effects of differences in skin color began to become a collective three dimensional concept that impacted every aspect of Jones’s life. Even in his own community he was not allowed to help the youth grow intellectually. His neighborhood, his source of support, did nothing short of disown him after he experienced life differently. His mental liberation turned into the source of inward and outward misery.
Sarcasm became John Jones’s way of coping and dealing with those who could not relate or understand him. Gone is the young man who was full of joy and hope. In his place is an outsider. It seeped its way into his mannerisms, into his demeanor. The uncovering of the original veil caused Jones to conceal himself behind another— this one separated him from the life he knew and from the life he will never know. Sarcasm is his way of dealing with the bitter solitude resulting from his actions.
Choked and narrow refers to both the life Jones’s community and Jones himself live; only Jones appears to be aware of this fact. His community finds freedom within the harsh restrictiveness of the times, where Jones miserably exists. The description of his hometown applies to wherever Jones chooses to go. For no matter how many opportunities there are in the world, no matter how many pleasures there are to be enjoyed, there will only be a space far off and away for him to observe from. This view of such a broad life from such a small area is one of many things that plague the learned mind of John Jones.
The passage itself relies on the unequal combination of every aforementioned tendency. The “linguistic imagery” allows the reader to pathetically relate to the anger, the disappointment, and the bitterness of reality. It is what allows the fury to come alive and thrive, not only on the page. Every emotion DuBois touches on is a common emotion which invites the audience to sympathize, to become Jones in some way, shape, or form. The passage allows us to see the transformation of Jones, a sign of hope and of growth into a man worn and beat down by the torments of an educated black man. There are undertones of idealogical theories such as double consciousness and the effects of knowledge.
The purpose this passage serves is showing the difference cognizance of one’s situation makes in daily the life of a black man, woman, and or child. This small excerpt relates not only to this chapter, but to the Of Our Spiritual Strivings chapter as well because John Jones is the ambitious black man in a segregated, race obsessed society. John Jones is the intelligent woman, the bright-minded child who has had their individuality, their humanity stripped away. John Jones is the one who breaks free of this ignorance to try to hear Lady Liberty’s bell ring in his ears.
This passage as a whole embodies the theme of double consciousness. The personal effects of the selection are deep multifaceted thoughts, a more tangible appreciation for controversial literature, bouts of confusion, a broadened view on various aspects of life, and an awareness of how prevalent and applicable double consciousness is today. The work’s eternal kairos contributes to the macro-theme of the point of the novel, which is that the realization that one is much more than meets the eye. The world is full of millions of John Joneses, and it is up to the individual to recognize that.
