Theme of Double Consciousness and the Celebration of Black Selfhood in Alice Childress’ Wedding Band: a Love/Hate Story in Black and White

Abstract

The present study investigates the dilemma of double consciousness and its reflections on the black dramatist, Alice Childress' Wedding Band (1966). The study illustrates the psychological consequences that have resulted from the Blacks’ attempts at resolving their double consciousness and realize true self-consciousness. Alice Childress, in Wedding Band, talks about people learning to love Blackness and Africa and to get rid of the shackles of self-inferiority that have been imposed on them by the white superiority and racism. Being spiritually reconciled within themselves—achieving a spiritual harmony between the two identities, the Black and the American— the black characters reach a state of wholeness and true self-consciousness. Childress makes the main character recreate her self-identity through a belief in her blackness and pride in adapting her cultural heritage. Childress successfully demonstrates that the working-class African Americans often adhere to their African roots to overcome the racial struggles they encounter in their hostile environment. Julia, a seamstress and major character of the play, discovers the value of her blackness and unity with the black community to reconcile her conflicting self. Through reuniting with her black neighbors—symbolically linking with Africa—she shakes off the shackles of the inner and outer struggles that limit and destroy her personal life. Through a close reading of this play, the current study will offer an analysis of the conflicts and the ways in which the characters, in particular Julia, navigate these conflicts of racism and its consequences of double consciousness.