Double-Consciousness in Audre Lorde’s Coal Essay -- Audre Lorde Coal E

Double-Consciousness in Audre Lordes ember There is a double-consciousness, jibe to W.E Burghardt Du Bois, in which we view ourselves through a veil. Underneath of this veil is the authoritative self. The person that we are in our purest state. The veil itself, however, is how society sees us and our realisation of that projection. Looking in a mirror, both layers can be seen. However, the genuine self is still covered, muddled, unclear beneath the sheer outer caseful of expectation. In her poem Coal, Audre Lorde alludes to this concept through the dual foresee of a piece of coal and a diamond. As a cutting woman, Lorde only transforms from coal to diamond when she embraces her disastrousness as coal and, ironically, rejects the societal pressure to conform by speaking her words and embracing that she is black and coal. In the beginning, Lorde equates herself with a piece of coal. She says that she is the sum of money black(2068). As a piece of coal, she is black bot h inside and out. Being outwardly black, she may still be oppressed by the society around her, her identicalness being engulfed by the world. In the state of coal, she is merely being speak from the earths inside(2068). Words would be stifled by the surrounding layers of dirt that engulf her. As coal, Lorde is susceptible to the double-consciousness described by Dubois. The poem begins with an I, and continues in the second line to say is the total black(2068). She separates herself from the total black here, indicating that her true self is not inescapably within that total black(2068). She also separates herself from the bad grammar associated with illiteracy that characterizes umpteen black communities. The total black, is not Lorde herself, but in fact,... ...ry occurs when Lorde says At this superlative in time, I believe that women carry within ourselves the possibility for amalgamation of these two approaches so necessary for survival, and we come closest to thi s combination in our poetry (Lorde 2210). Thus, through further exploration of Lorde as a person, naked insight is given to the poem Coal. The poem also unwittingly raises questions about other poems when upheld as an example for comparison to elucidate Lordes feelings about double-consciousness. This greater understanding and discourse on the subject of double-consciousness is alert to understanding the poem Coal because it is vital to the identity of Audre Lorde as a person. Since her writing is almost exclusively and scrutinizingly about herself, learning about the broader topics and events in Lordes life are intrinsic to the specific poem of Coal.