Double Consciousness in Quicksand

Double Consciousness in Quicksand

W. E. B. Du Bois' concept of the double consciousness of African Americans is a prevalent motif throughout Nella Larsen's novella, Quicksand. Double consciousness, Du Bois argues, is the idea that one does not have any sense of "true self consciousness" (Du Bois 9), rather one sees him or herself through "the eyes of the world" (9). It is through this phenomenon that African Americans do not see their heritage bonding with their citizenship, causing them to forever "feel[ their] two-ness, -an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unrecoiled strivings; two working ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder" (9). This duality of identity and self consciousness is, Du Bois holds, a fundamental aspect of an African American experience, for accepting that one 's self is solely an American would be to abandon one's African heritage, and the uniqueness that is brought on by being a black individual within a predominantly white society would then be lost.