WEB DuBois coined the term “Double Consciousness” in his classic work “The Souls of Black Folk”. But what does this term mean? Being doubly conscious is the act of seeing oneself through the eyes of another society while remaining true to one's own society. One who is doubly conscious can still carry the values ​​of his society and implement them in a way that helps society develop. They therefore do not assimilate completely. One author who writes about the struggle to have a double consciousness is Sherman Alexie with his short excerpt, “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.” Sherman's main character goes through many ordinary circumstances, but these are not ordinary for his character because he is able to understand what American society assumes about his culture. However, Sherman's character does not make a great contribution to society in any way. This allows the author to modify DuBois' original definition of double consciousness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay In his story, Sherman's character Alexie, a young Native American, experiences what seem to be normal confrontations, but because of his double consciousness, they are disproportionate. For example, Alexie writes about a time when her character was walking through a white neighborhood thinking about her life. A police officer, probably called to the neighborhood, takes him aside and explains: “You're making people nervous. You don’t match the neighborhood profile (Alexie).” Sarcastically, the narrator thought about telling the officer that he “didn’t really fit the profile of the country (Alexie).” Alexie's character shows that he understood what the official was trying to tell him, that he was an outcast. Even the fact that the narrator states that the police officer was called to the scene shows that the narrator understands where he fits in the American social food chain. This further reinforces the narrator's double consciousness as paranoia. After a typical three a.m. visit to the local 7-11, the narrator encounters the men in blue again, as he waves them down in his car. What shows him to be paranoid is the fact that he assumes they answered him "accidentally". This wasn't just because they were trying to be polite, but because, at least in the narrator's mind, they were profiling him again. These examples show that the narrator is fully aware of what the rest of the population thinks of him, but that he is also capable of assuming what they think of him. Finally, double consciousness actually helps to better develop the story, because if the narrator had not been aware of society's point of view, the nonchalant police wave would not have caused him so many problems. The other part of DuBois' definition of double consciousness, that instead of assimilating, one would improve society by being oneself, is really not represented in this story, and so the story has changed the definition. The main character Alexie is actually struggling with her identity. His mother even asks him the question: “What are you going to do with the rest of your life?” (Alexie). He replies: “I don’t know (Alexie). » He goes on to say that he has a degree, that he is intelligent and that he was supposed to be this Christ figure for the people of India by becoming someone. But most of the time he just “watched TV” and “flicked through the channels for weeks on end.” Therefore, he even admits that he does not meet DuBois' definition of contributing to society in a positive way. Keep in mind: this is just one.