Essay Questions

In his 1956 essay “Why I Won’t Vote” what is the primary reason that Du Bois gives making that decision?

The essay was composed directly in response to the 1956 Presidential election and is specifically related to the conditions of that campaign. Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower was running for re-election following his first term in office with Vice-President Richard Nixon once again chosen to be his running mate. Opposing him was the Democratic nominee, Adlai Stevenson his Vice-Presidential running mate, Estes Kefauver. Despite the fact that then and now this particular election was viewed as one offering a clear-cut choice between a Republican conservative and a Democratic liberal, Du Bois expresses his intention to withhold his vote on the basis that the election was really providing no choice at all on the singular issue of race. Dismissing Eisenhower as a legitimate choice is considered a gimme, but of the supposedly liberal opposition, Du Bois observes: “Stevenson stands on the race question in the South not far from where his godfather Adlai stood sixty-three years ago, which reconciles him to the South.”

Most plot twists occur near the end of the story, but “The Comet” features a plot right near the beginning. What is it?

A story title “The Comet” in which the opening scene foreshadows the anxiety stretching even to the president of the bank about the possibility of earth passing through the comet’s tail is only to be expected to turn on the events of that possibility transpiring. When the main character is sent down into the dark abyss beneath the bank, it becomes almost assured that the story is going to be about his adventures below while the comet hits above. Just the comet does hit, however, the protagonist—a disposable black man given all the grunt assignments—discovers a secret vault and inside that vault is a chest and inside that chest he sees “the dull sheen of gold!” And then the comet hits, he forgets all about the gold and the treasure is never mentioned again as the story transforms into one of survival in the wake of what seems to be the end of the world and any value for gold.

Du Bois was one of one-hundred writers asked to contribute his thoughts to a book of affirmations on the subject of immortality. What was his remarkably pragmatic response?

Du Bois asserts feelings of respect toward those who believe in the concept of spiritual immortality as well as those who reject it outright. In fact, he says he is equally unimpressed by both arguments. Having no great faith in either its possibility or impossibility, then, he can only admit the obvious: “I do not know. I do not see how any one could know.” Rather than providing an affirmation of the potential for man to attain immortality or questioning how such a thing could ever be possible, he takes the path of pure logic: it is pointless to pontificate on the subject—any subject—without the acquisition of useful data with which one can defend their argument one way or the other.