The Commonality Of A Double Consciousness - 1210 Words

The Commonality of a Double Consciousness America is designed to give opportunity and freedom to any citizen that is within it’s boundaries. Immigrants come to America looking for these opportunities and expect to be successful in their new country. In No-No Boy, John Okada tells the story of a second generation Japanese Immigrant who is trying to figure out who he is as an American who isn’t accepted in his own country. W.E.B. Dubois is an author who wrote about the injustices on African Americans in an American society. Both John Okada and W.E.B. Dubois write about how the Double Consciousness of citizens in the United States. The struggles of a double consciousness clearly don’t just apply to African American’s, it can apply to all†¦show more content†¦Even though he despises his mother s obsession with the motherland, he still can’t seem to belong as an Asian American on the West Coast. America interned his whole family, and they are seen as a threat by the white Americans. Af rican Americans seem to dislike them as well tell him to â€Å"Go back to Tokyo†[1, pg.7]. This sounds similar to Dubois statement in The Souls of Black Folk, â€Å"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.†[2] Ichiro throughout the story is conflicted by this thought of whether he is American, a traitor, or completely japanese. He debates whether he should have been an active member in the United States Military and died for a country that his family doesn’t believe in. Even after all of his trouble with going to prison and not being trusted he is offered a job by Mr.Car rick on pages 132-137. This job would be great for anyone let alone a Japanese American citizen that just got out of prison. Even though he is presented with a great opportunity he still