The Comet, a dystopian short story written by W. E. B. Du Bois, centers on the two survivors of a deadly toxin that kills everyone else in New York. However, these two survivors, Jim and Julia, are from two completely different worlds; Jim is a working-class, black man while Julia is a rich, white woman. Through their conversations, actions, and emotions, Du Bois weaves a message about how trivial the social structures of human society are.
A particular conversation Jim and Julia have that illustrates Du Bois’s point occurs near the end of the story. While on the roof of the Metropolitan Tower, the pair talk about their respective backgrounds, which leads to Julia saying the following phrase:
"'Yes,' she [Julia] said slowly; 'and how foolish our human distinctions seem--now,' looking down to the great dead city stretched below, swimming in unlightened shadows.”
In this quote, we can see Julia’s development as her previous beliefs about class and race disappear. By including the word “slowly” and using dark adjectives such as “dead” and “unlightened,” Du Bois gives this scene a remorseful tone. It seems as if Julia is reflecting on the past, realizing the wrongs of the old society and “how foolish our human distinctions seem.” Additionally, she finally accepts Jim as an equal--as a human. Instead of using a phrase that distinguishes her from Jim, such as “my people’s,” she uses the word “our,” referring to her and Jim as one. This moment of Julia’s growth also highlights Du Bois’s message that everyone is equal, and the different social divisions in society are “foolish.”
The context of when this phrase is said is important: to their knowledge, Jim and Julia are the only two people left on a dead planet. Notice how Julia says “now,” which refers to the current situation: a great dead city. It was only through the death of millions that the social structures and barriers were able to collapse. This idea that Jim and Julia only recognize each other as equals because of an apocalyptic event suggests that these “human distinctions” are deeply ingrained in the foundations of our society. In fact, we can see how deeply the ideas of race and class are buried in Julia through her statement, and more specifically, the em-dash before she says now (“--now”). Looking at the sentence mechanically, the em-dash isn’t necessary; “how foolish our human distinctions seem now” is grammatically correct. Why then, did Du Bois include an em-dash? While the em-dash is a highly versatile punctuation mark, it is commonly used in place of commas or parentheses to provide more emphasis. Therefore, by including the em-dash, Du Bois could be drawing attention to the word now, which also leads back to the idea that Julia only sees Jim as an equal because of the apocalyptic situation. The em-dash could also suggest that Julia pauses while talking. This pause could be the literal moment of remorse and reflection suggested by the tone of the sentence, showing Julia’s hesitance to enter an unfamiliar world where race and class don’t exist. By including these details, Du Bois is suggesting that the society’s “distinctions” are deeply buried in not only civilization, but individuals as well, and as a result, it will take something extremely radical or drastic in order for humans to move past these groupings.
This sentence shows the growth of Julia’s character, which is a medium that Du Bois uses to convey his idea that race and class are meaningless, but are strongly linked with the foundations of human society.
Seeing that Du Bois was a wise man, this sentence has quite a lot of truth. When Du Bois wrote The Comet, the main "distinctions" in society were race and class, and these categories often led to the mistreatment of people. Granted, the issues of race and class have greatly improved today, but they still exist, and humans have formed even more groups to put themselves in. Whether it's gender, sexuality, or Apple vs. Windows, people give themselves labels that creates separation from others. While I believe that people should embrace their identity, acknowledge the unique traits of others, and form their own opinions, I don’t believe that these differences should cause conflict or the oppression of others.
At the end of the day, everyone is human.
