Spiritual Striving In Du Bois's The Souls Of Black Folk

a. This is a major concept of African American literature because this is the foundation of their beliefs and hopes. In The Souls of Black folk, Du Bois talks about spiritual striving; meaning having the strength and mind set to strive in life during these circumstances. To illustrate, “Men call the shadow prejudice, and learnedly explain it as the natural defence of culture against barbarism, learning against ignorance, purity against crime, the “higher” against the “lower” races.” (Pg. 14) This quote explains how African Americans are being discriminated against. If they put to use spiritual striving, in result they will achieve their goal in advancing in society. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, “I have a Dream”, he discusses the problem with society
He says, “You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.” (P. 81) By this King means, we’ve all had unjustified suffering but we must prevail and fight it with faith that it will be soon over. You must believe it will end and it shall. This spiritedness MLK talks about isn’t just for blacks to pray and wait for it to happen. He wants everyone to take action; African Americans cannot just sit and wait for a miracle. In, In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens by Alice Walker, Walker verbalizes about her search of the black women’s suppressed gift. Many African American women had artistic skills and talents but lost it due to the fact of being compelled to this way of life meaning slavery. Black women had talent or “art spirituality”, were oblivious to the fact they obtained a gift. In this quote, “Throwing away this spirituality was their pathetic attempt to lighten the soul to a weight their work-worn, sexually abused bodies could bear.” (P. 2381) Alice Walker suggests African American women have been through extreme hardships due to slavery that their spirituality is even a burden on