Du Bois's "On Being Crazy": Satire, Race, and Intellect
This essay analyzes W.E.B. Du Bois's short satirical piece "On Being Crazy," examining how Du Bois deploys wit, humor, and reasoned replies to expose the absurdity of white racial prejudice. Through close reading of several key encounters—at a restaurant, a theatre, a hotel, and on a road—the essay demonstrates how Du Bois's calm, rational responses juxtapose sharply against white irrationality, revealing racism as a form of social madness. The essay also considers the literary devices Du Bois employs, including metaphor and allegory, and argues that his sophisticated intelligence appeals to the humanist conscience in all readers, challenging the moral foundations of racial hierarchy.
- Introduction: Du Bois's Satirical Strategy: Du Bois uses humor and reason to critique racism
- Wit and Reason Against White Irrationality: Restaurant and theatre encounters expose racial absurdity
- Escalating Satire: Metaphor and Allegory: Hotel and road incidents intensify satirical critique
- The Absurdity of Racial Fanaticism: Roadside marriage episode reveals white irrationality
- Racism as Craziness: Intellect Over Anatomy: Racism defied by moral and intellectual superiority
- Conclusion: Du Bois's Humanist Appeal: Du Bois's intellect exposes racism's fundamental craziness
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What makes this paper effective
- The essay uses well-chosen direct quotations from the primary text to ground each analytical claim, allowing Du Bois's own words to carry argumentative weight.
- The paper builds its argument progressively, moving from simpler to more complex examples of Du Bois's satirical technique, mirroring the escalating force of the original text.
- The inclusion of Robert F. Kennedy's rhetorical question about a black God effectively broadens the moral stakes of the argument beyond the literary into the philosophical.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The essay demonstrates close reading as an analytical method, unpacking the rhetorical effect of specific exchanges in Du Bois's text. By explaining not just what Du Bois says but how and why his replies work—situational appropriateness, understated humor, sharp wit—the writer shows how form and content reinforce each other in satirical writing.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by establishing Du Bois's satirical strategy through early textual examples, then traces a progression of incidents (restaurant, theatre, hotel, roadside encounter) to show how the satire intensifies. It concludes by stepping back to make a broader moral claim about racism as irrationality, framing Du Bois's humanist argument as universally compelling. The structure follows the narrative sequence of the source text while layering interpretive commentary throughout.
Introduction: Du Bois's Satirical Strategy
W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the most influential African American intellectuals of the twentieth century, employs a distinctive satirical strategy in his short piece "On Being Crazy." Rather than confronting racial prejudice with anger or despair, Du Bois deploys calm reason, understated humor, and sharp wit to expose the fundamental absurdity of white racial intolerance. Through a series of everyday encounters, he allows the irrationality of his antagonists to speak for itself, positioning his own composed and logical responses as the voice of genuine humanity.
His uncomplicated, sensible replies bear direct significance to the real and immediate circumstances at hand. Du Bois is largely indifferent to the project of establishing social equality by argument; for him, equality must be naturally so. It is unnatural and irrational to believe that one man is inherently inferior to another. This conviction anchors his satirical voice throughout the piece.
Reference
W. E. B. Du Bois, "On Being Crazy," The Conscious Reader, 8th ed. Ed. Caroline Shrodes, Harry Finestone, and Michael Shugrue. Longman, 2000.
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