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 existence which yields him no true self-consciousness, scarcely only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always spirit at wholenesss 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 deucenessan American, a Negro two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength just keeps it from being torn asunder. (Du Bois) It is obvious that the protagonist as head as several lesser characters in Maud Martha by Gwendolyn tolerate suffer from this distressing double-consciousness, especially Maud Martha. Maud Martha realized that she was not the cherished one be cause of her darker cuttingis color at an very early age, thus to be cherished was the dearest wish of the sum of Maud Martha Brown.( Brooks 1650) In her own family, her beloved father preferred her sister Helen because Helen was lighter At school her schoolmates also liked Helen and ignored her When she grew into charhood and got married, her husband Paul also showed a partisanship to lighter women. Marthas father, classmates and husband acted this way because as black people they themselves were treated as subscript creatures all the time by white Americans. Under this white gaze, the value that the black was inferior was trustworthy 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 nearly 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) harmo nize to Michel Foucault, the gaze is actually imposed upon people by themselves til now though it looks like that it is imposed from something passkey upon everyone.No need for weapons, physical violence or prohibition, it takes only a surveillant gaze to humble anyone, to clear them the overseers of themselves. Luckily, Martha was a woman with artistic sensibility. Although living an ordinary action in a racist world, unsounded 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 much improved by this motherhoodshe 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 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 yet not strong enough to fight everything. When Paul was laid off she went to work as a accommodate 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 aftermath, she suddenly realized what her husband had suffered all the time in his works 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, ye t even cannot explain to her little girl why a memory Santa Claus did not like her- or even smile at hera wishful blindness. No press 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 fighting 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 essence 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 u s. References The Souls of the Black Folk, Du Bois, W. E. B. Discipline and Punish The Birth of the Prison , Michel Foucault Maud Martha, Gwendolyn Gwendolyn.