The Souls of Black Folk is a sociological, informative piece of writing, intended as a means for Du Bois to both document and analyze the problems faced by Black Americans in the early nineteenth century. Notably, the writing goes beyond mere documentation: Du Bois uses a wide variety of literary techniques and figurative language to truly place his readership in the shoes of struggling Black Americans. Scattered throughout the text are multitudinous examples of simile, metaphor, and personification, accompanied by quite often vivid imagery. Du Bois puts his Harvard education to good use, referencing all kinds of poetry, prose, drama, and mythology from the Western literary canon; at times, he even strays from the English language, including excerpts in German.
Without this use of inflated prose, Du Bois's analysis of double consciousness would perhaps not resonate quite as profoundly with those in his audience who don't share his experiences: namely, white Americans and the academic elite. Du Bois may even have deliberately amplified these more referential, literary elements to establish ethos, or an appeal to his authority, in more "educated"—and therefore more "white"—spaces. At the time, Du Bois would have been one of the only prominent Black intellectuals with any kind of platform. Undoubtedly, in the face of vicious racism, he might have felt the need to employ every weapon in his academic arsenal to establish credibility.
