Double Identity In The Stranger, By George Simmel

is that there are outsiders in today’s society. When one is made into an outsider, the bias

Simmel defines the stranger as one that is both close and far; that is physically close, but socially distant. He disassociates his concept from the understanding of the stranger as one who comes and goes. Rather, the stranger he speaks of in this case is one who comes and stays, but has not been socialized under the same conditions as mainstream society. Despite this, the stranger is not a person who is withdrawn from society and is unaware of social norms. Rather, someone is inorganically appended to the society, but still an organic member of the group (ibid, 149). The stranger is seen as and valuable member of society because it is, in no way connected to any one individual. The stranger holds a certain objectivity, and can be confessed to without the threat of judgment on the confessor (ibid, 145).

W.E.B. Du Bois (1968-1963) was a huge contributor to sociology through the eyes and experience of an African-American scholar (Vissing, 2011). Du Bois was an author, activist and student of Black sociology. In his 1897 article, Strivings of the Negro People”, Du Bois introduced the term “double-consciousness”, a concept I believe to be just as relevant in today’s African-American communities. Double consciousness refers to what Du Bois considered an absence of “true self consciousness” (Du Bois, 1897) amongst Africans in America. In place of that absence, lies a dual awareness- awareness of one’s self combined with an awareness

In Ryszard Kapuscinski’s lecture, “Encountering the Other: The Challenge for the 21st Century”, Kapuscinski argues that everyone is part of another group that is deemed the ‘Other’. Kapuscinski states that “Others are indeed Others, but for those Others, I am the one who is Other” (Kapuscinski, 22). Thus, being an outsider is a universal condition since we are all the Other to someone else. However, some might argue that being an outsider is not a universal condition as humans are by nature social animals so being an outsider is a rare occurence. To this, Kapuscinski also states that being an outsider is universal as “...the Other is a mirror into which you peer...a mirror that unmasks and denudes, which we would prefer to avoid” (Kapuscinski, 28). In other words, being an outsider is a universal condition even though humans are social animals because the Other is a reflection of qualities that define a person and humanity in general. The quality of being in outsider is universal as everyone is an outsider to someone else and outsiders are simply reflections of who humanity

In Du Bois’ essay, Strivings of the Negro People, he says, “It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness,-an American, a Negro two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” (Strivings of the Negro People, pg. 68). This idea of double-consciousness that he describes in this passage is born out of mass oppression. For hundreds of years African Americans were viewed as lesser than, as inhuman, and thus when slavery ended in 1865 these ideas were still ubiquitous. So, even though they were born

The next aspect of double consciousness consists of the rejection of African Americans by white Americans and institutions. Blacks are forced to live in America, but at the same time, are not considered “true” Americans and are separated by the veil that DuBois talks about. DuBois first feels this rejection when a little girl at his school rejected his card for no reason other than his skin color. He asks, “Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house?” (Dubois 896). He describes opportunities for blacks as “relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night” (896) giving the impression that a

In The Stranger, Albert Camus describes the life of the protagonist, Meursault, through life changing events. The passage chosen illustrates Meursault’s view during his time in prison for killing the Arab. In prison, one can see the shifts in Meursault’s character and the acceptance of this new lifestyle. Camus manipulates diction to indicate the changes in Meursault caused by time thinking of memories in prison and realization of his pointless life. Because Camus published this book at the beginning of World War II, people at this time period also questions life and death similar to how Meursault does.

What is an outsider? An outsider is a person who is not excepted by or is isolated by society. Have you ever been an “outsider”? Everyone experiences a situation where they weren’t able to fit in. The feeling of not being able to fit it is universal. Not everyone is the same and in certain situations you may not be able to bond with everyone. Everyone is focused on being judged or being the person who is judging someone. If you are not like everyone in your society group, those people don’t except you. Nowadays our society feels that if you aren’t up to people’s expectations, you are known to be an “outsider”. Being an outsider is universal because not everyone is social, not everyone can afford nice things and not everyone is popular.

W.E.B. DuBois, in The Souls of Black Folk describes the very poignant image of a veil between the blacks and the whites in his society. He constructs the concept of a double-consciousness, wherein a black person has two identities as two completely separate individuals, in order to demonstrate the fallacy of these opinions. J.S. Mill also describes a certain fallacy in his own freedom of thought, a general conception of individuals that allows them to accept something similar to DuBois’ double-consciousness and perpetuates the existence of the veil.

naturally endured identity issues. I feel that W.E.B Du Bois’ idea of double consciousness comes

Simmel defines the stranger as one that is both close and far; that is physically close, but socially distant. He disassociates his concept from the understanding of the stranger as one who comes and goes. Rather, the stranger he speaks of in this case is one who comes and stays, but has not been socialized under the same conditions as mainstream society. Despite this, the stranger is not a person who is withdrawn from society and is unaware of social norms. Rather, someone is inorganically appended to the society, but still an organic member of the group (ibid, 149). The stranger is seen as and valuable member of society because it is, in no way connected to any one individual. The stranger holds a certain objectivity, and can be confessed to without the threat of judgment on the confessor (ibid, 145).

The early 20th century African-American scholar W.E.B. Du Bois identified the 'double consciousness' of African-Americans as the demand that African-Americans must understand white culture as well as their own to survive in a hostile, white-dominated America. Unlike whites, who could choose to interact with blacks only when it suited their needs (whether this meant employing them as servants or going to jazz clubs), African-Americans had to be hyper-aware of the needs of whites, given white political and economic dominance.

Double Consciousness refers to a concept first explored by WEB Du Bois. This describes the African American man and his identity having to be split or divided. In other words it “describes the individual sensation of feeling as though your identity is divided into several parts, making it difficult or impossible to have one unified identity” (WEB Du Bois). Moreover, Du Bois also expresses that Black Americans have lived in a society that has made them feel inferior, it can become extremely difficult for them to bind their black identify with their American identity. This can in turn, cause blacks to look at their

Robert Penn quotes Du Bois' The Souls of Black Folk. He sums up this concept beautifully: "It is a particular sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One never feels the two-ness-- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." (Penn, p.19)

The idea of double consciousness, termed by W.E.B. Du Bois, for African Americans deals with the notion that one’s self has duality in being black and American. It is the attempt to reconcile two cultures that make up the identity of black men and women. One can only see through the eyes of another. A veil exists in this idea, where one has limits in how he or she can see or be seen. This individual is invisible to the onlookers of the veil, and those onlookers may be invisible to the individual. This then alters how one can truly interpret their conscious. This concept is one that has been explored in various themes of literature,