Double-Consciousness Under the White Gaze Essay Example for Free

Double-Consciousness Under the White Gaze EssayThe theme of double-consciousness was first defined by Du Bois in The Souls of the Black Folk. He put the term double-consciousness in a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the divine revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of al modalitys looking at ones self through the eyes of others, of measuring ones soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twonessan American, a Negro two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings two aggressive ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. (Du Bois) It is obvious that the protagonist as well as several lesser characters in Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks suffer from this distressing double-consciousness, especially Maud Martha. Maud Martha realized that she was non the cherished one because o f her darker skin color at an very primordial age, thus to be cherished was the dearest wish of the heart of Maud Martha Brown.( Brooks 1650) In her own family, her beloved father preferred her sister Helen because Helen was lightness At school her schoolmates also liked Helen and ignored her When she grew into womanhood and got married, her husband Paul also showed a transgressiality to lighter women. Marthas father, classmates and husband acted this way because as black people they themselves were treated as outclassed creatures all the time by face cloth-hot Americans. Under this white gaze, the value that the black was inferior was accepted and internalized by the gazed over time.This internalizing also happened to Martha as she struggled all the way to build up her subjectiveness. That accounts for her inferiority about her appearance and jealous of Helen her prettier. When a white schoolmate Charles came to visit Martha, she should feel a sort of gratitude. (Brooks 1653 ) According to Michel Foucault, the gaze is actually oblige upon people by themselves even though it looks like that it is imposed from something superior upon everyone.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 documentation an ordinary life in a racist world, still she can find beauty and dignity in her life. When she spared the mouse, she experienced a new cleanness in her because she had not destroyed. In the center of that simple restraint wascreation. 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 oft improved by this motherhoodshe did create a new life who was totally dependent on her at that time. At the beauty salon, she was shock that the salon owner Mrs. Johnson j ust put up with a white saleswomans humiliation of referring them as 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.Blackoh,black Her subjectivity is helpful so far not strong enough to fight 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. Coopers showed obvious contempt towards her. At this moment, she suddenly realized what her husband had suffered all the time in his working environment. Feeling this humiliation, she quitted the job the next day. She understood better about the struggles and frustrations caused by the white American now, even though she could not do much about it.She was always sensitive to the exclusion of the Negro in a white world, yet even cannot explain to her little girl why a store Santa Claus did not like her- or even smile at hera wishful blindness. No matter what, Martha never gave up her love for life. At the end of the novella, Marthas brother was back from the wars alive and well which made her sense the beauty of life again. She went such a long way bit the confliction in her life, the problem of double identity and double-consciousness, and found her equanimity finally. So she would think that At a moment like this one was ready for anything, was not afraid of anything..At a moment like this, one could even think of death with a sharp exhilaration, feel that death was a part of life that life was good and death would be good too. This reconciliation can be considered as Marthas triumph of the struggle. In a word, Maud Martha captures the issue of Black life with regard to their double-consciousness under the white gaze, and Brooks recognizes the beauty and strength that lies within each of us. References The Souls of the Black Folk, Du Bois, W. E. B. Discipline and Punish The Birth of the prison house , Michel Foucault Maud Martha, Gwendolyn Gwendolyn.