Discuss a few examples where Elaine experiences a "dual self" or what W.E.B. DuBois calls "double consciousness." Analyze these examples in the context of the book and if you would like, respond using personal examples or opinions based on the real world.
11 comments:
In this book Elaine had many examples of "Dual Examples". One example of her showing both personalities is when she was being teased by cindy and She screamed out in the chinese langauge. She was so nervous because she felt that if her personalities mix she can get into trouble or will not be liked. That is one of the examples of "double conciousness". She feels she has to Separate her church life from her mother because of the different culture too. That bothers Manyee because her she has to bit her toungue when culture and her thoughts mix. She feels like she has to be so careful wit the kids at school her mother and church. Basically she just wants the world to be happy and except her for who she is.
One instance where Elaine is her routine church visits on Sunday and Wednesday and her talk of the spirirts the rest of the week. Her church self loves the stories and values she hears of while there and she enjoys the atmosphere of being with a friend. At home she reverts back to her Chinese heritage and learns about the spirits with her mother, a concept that Christians don't practice. So, she realizes that she believes in both Jesus and her spririts without conflict.
Elaine examples of dual self are America/China, English/Chinese, and daughter/mother. Elaine haves to speak a certain way at home to please mother. But in order to fit in at school she cannot speak any Chinese.
I think that when she yelled out in Chinese it mixed the two identites and that created much trouble for Man Yee because she feels like she has to be one person at school and another person at home. Her Chinese self interferes with her American self in school and that causes the teasing by Cindy. So i agree with tinkerbell when she says that that is an example of "Dual Sleves".
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one example of her eperiencing a "dual self" is her getting her name change into a American name. She had to now become this American gurl with a Amercan name thats speaks english. At home she HAd to be a Chinese girl with a Chinese name thhat speacks Chinese. Basically she has to be a chinese girl at home with her family and a American girl at shool with her classmates.
An example would be when Man-yee went to church with her mom and she acted like a chinese, but when she was in the gym at school she tried to hide her identity but ended up shouting something in chinese
she had to got through a lot of thing before she beleaved in her self.
Elaine shows various examples of her "Dual self." She knows that there are two sides of her personality;her American self and her Chinese self.She tries hard to keep them separate.Even though in the book she expose her two sides. for example, she yells out in chinese. It was hard for her but shocking for everyone else because she tries to hide her chinese image of herself. This shows her "Dual Self."
Nellieboo, i totally agree i was just using that same example of whern she yelled out at the gym, which mixed her chinese self to her American self.
"Dual Self" is a major issue in Elaine experiences. One example will be her two different names. Her original name was Man-Yee which came from her chinese culture. When moving to America she was force to change her name to Elaine. It doesn't matter what oyur name is it still shouldn't change who you really are
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