Bonus Blog #3 (complexity of double-consciousness)

Double consciousness is a state of being whereby a person’s identity is divided into multiple facets. This is often brought about by migration over to another country with a whole new culture and lifestyle, or as a result of one’s mixed blood. It leads to a complexity of identity as an individual feels that he or she does not solely belong to any one fixed culture.

The works of Sui Sui Far, Mary Antin and Onoto Watanna all present this state of double consciousness in a relatively negative light, albeit a different manner. Far and Antin both presents the difficulties in assimilating into another country’s way of life. In The Land Of The Free highlights Far’s presentation of the struggle Lae Choo faces between her double consciousness of being Chinese, yet having to assimilate into America’s culture and accepting the fact that everything in America follows standard protocol of paper documents and evidence. Her mindset is one in which a child should naturally follow and stay with their parents, as opposed to America’s law, whereby proper documentation is deemed more important as opposed to keeping a family together. She thus endures sleepless nights, as there is nothing she can do in order to bridge the different forms of behavior that is expected from her in her dual identity.

From The Promised Land by Antin illustrates the manner in which the father faces difficulty in assimilating into the American culture. Despite being in the land of freedom and armed with the mindset that one can achieve success so long as they set their hearts out to it, his Chinese background hinders him. Being brought up with little education, it is not easy for him to adapt to the English language and ways of life, and he thus “never learned to write correctly, and his pronunciation remains extremely foreign to this day” (496). However, as opposed to Far’s work whereby the story ends on a bleak note with regards to whether her long separated child will acknowledge her, Antin’s story offers greater hope, as the early education made available to the later generations will allow them to be better able to cope with the notion of their double consciousness.

A Half Caste by Watanna on the other hand differs in the manner in which Okikusan does not in the slightest bit seeks to assimilate into her two different identities. Instead, she detests her double consciousness, as it only serves to remind her of the bad memories of how her mum was abandoned by her white father.

This element of double consciousness can thus be seen as a difficult reality for one to comprehend with.