AS AM 5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Mother Goddess, The Waste Land, Double Consciousness
Document Summary
Ichiro: hardened, confused, conflicted, lost, apathetic, haunted, dissatisfied, angry, spiteful, betrayed, Standing in front of a broken mirror. Not only is he seeing the reflection of himself, but he is seeing himself in broken pieces. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one"s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one"s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness--an american, a negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. War forces questions, represents a moment of conflict. The divided, conflicting self looking at oneself in a broken mirror: Pounding until there"s nothing left to call one"s self (12). Fluidity of consciousness to reflect this reality; alienated self in an urban world.
