gaining self-consciousness in a racist society. The veil is also a metaphor that reoccurs in other novels about black strivings. The veil is not a two dimensional cloth to Du Bois but instead it is a three dimensional prison that prevent blacks from seeing themselves as they are but instead makes them see the negative stereotypes that whites have of them.*A href=#Footnote26B name=Footnote26A*Footnote26*/A* The veil is also to Du Bois both a blind fold and a noose on the existence of "ten thousand thousand" Americans who live and strive invisible and separated from their white brothers and sisters. Du Bois wrote *I*Souls of Black Folk*/I*s to lift the veil and show the pain and sorrow of a striving people. Like Saint Paul's letter to the Corinthians Du Bois's "letter" to the American people urges people not to live behind the veil but to live above it. */P* *CENTER**FORM**P*So, wed with truth, */P* *P*I dwell above the Veil.*/P* *P*Is this the life you grudge us, O knightly America?*/P* *P*-W.E.B. Du Bois*/P* *P* */P* */FORM* */CENTER**HR* *P**A href=#Footnote1A name=Footnote1B*Footnote1*/A**/P* *P* W.E.B. Du Bois,*I* The Souls of Black Folk*/I* (New York: Bantam Company, 1989) 3.*/P* *P**A href=#Footnote2A name=Footnote2B*Footnote2*/A**/P* *P* Ibid., 6.*/P* *P**A href=#Footnote3A name=Footnote3B*Footnote3*/A**/P* *P* Arnold Rampersad, *I*Slavery and the literary imagination: Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk*/I* (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1989) 104-125. Rampersad in his book says that Du Bois's metaphor of the veil is an allusion to Saint Paul's letter to the Corinthians. */P* *P**A href=#Footnote4A name=Footnote4B*Footnote4*/A**/P* *P* W.E.B. Du Bois,*I* The Souls of Black Folk*/I* (New York: Bantam Company, 1989) 3.*/P* *P**A href=#Footnote5A name=Footnote5B*Footnote5*/A**/P* *P* Ibid., 3.*/P* *P**A href=#Footnote6A name=Footnote6B*Footnote6*/A**/P* *P* Ibid., xxxi.*/P* *P**A href=#Footnote7A na...
