DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS AND PSYCHIC DISINTEGRATION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS: AN ANALYSIS OF COLSON WHITEHEAD’S THE NICKEL BOYS FROM DU BOIS’S PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This qualitative research explores Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys (2019) in the light of Du Bois’s theorization of double consciousness and psychic disintegration in African Americans. African Americans confront two worldviews, i-e., Eurocentric worldview and African worldview. In order to navigate in American social life and manifest a presentable persona vis-à-vis the prevalent oppressive environment and racism, they undergo psychic disintegration thereby giving rise to double consciousness. Elwood, the protagonist of The Nickel Boys confronts double standards of the society. He undergoes a radical change in his identity from Turner to Elwood. This paper argues that Elwood and Turner are the two sides of the same coin. Idealist Elwood who tries his best to conform to Eurocentric oriented social norms turns to skeptical Turner while violent nature of Turner ends with Elwood’s naïve character in the process of adaptation to oppressive social paraphernalia. Instead of reformation, the original self of Elwood is lost in the Nickel Academy.