Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on W.E.B. DuBois’ “The Souls of Black Folks”: A Structural Functionalist Approach. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page overview of the meaning and intent of this early twentieth century work. Written from a structural functionalist approach, this paper attempts to use DuBois’ work to define black existence within context of the white society beside which it exists. The author of this paper contends that the ethnic relations illustrated by DuBois were a manifestation of white societies’ tendency to keep their own “family” strong by either weeding out, or preying on the cheap or even free labor of blacks. Blacks, on the other hand, set up their own internal way of interacting with the world which served to preserve their own society. Bibliography lists 6 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AM2_PPduboi3.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
Literature often serves as our window into history. Through that window we can look not just at story lines, themes, and plots but
at social conditions. Race and ethnic relations, in particular, are given new illumination in some of the greater literary works. Such is the case with such works as
W.E. Dubois "Souls of Black Folks". Pearson (PG) writes that DuBois attempted to define black identity in this work. Black identity, however, could only be defined in the
context of the white society beside which it existed. From a structural functionalism standpoint, Dubois "Souls of Black Folks" could be contended to provide an almost first-person understanding of
the factors influencing the relations between blacks and whites in the time period within which Dubois wrote. Structural functionalism, of course, is an
anthropological premise first founded by Radcliff-Brown and Evans-Pritchard. While initially utilized to aid our understanding of Polynesian and African societies, the premise is now commonly employed on a much
wider sociological scale to justify many aspects of culture from many different time periods. Modern sociological theory, as defined by Emile Durheim, now looks on the structural functionalism theory
as being useful in illustrating why certain sociological phenomena unfold and, indeed, in the justification of those phenomena (Craib 37). This explanation of
sociological phenomena is extended not only to the obviously positive aspects of society but also the more questionable elements. Infantacide, female circumcision, racism, and in effect all of the
less savory aspects of society can be justified under the theory of structural functionalism. Infantacide, for example, is justified as being in the best interest of mother and the
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