In Chapter 5 of The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois refers to the Greek myth of Hippomenes as a means to warn new educations systems of the south about the temptation to place material prosperity above cultural prosperity. This warning is relevant to Atlanta Season 1 in which many characters pursue material wealth. How is the tension between dreams of wealth and dreams of Good/Beauty/Truth illustrated in Season 1 of Atlanta? Further, insofar as Du Bois’s announces a warning to the “universities of the south”, how does Atlanta Season 1 similarly speak to its audience and offer a social imperative with its plot?
Du Bois argues that the schools of the south can help or hinder southern progress. Referencing the intertext of Hippomenes and Atalanta, he states that “the wings of Atalanta are the coming universities of the South. They alone can bear the maiden past the temptation of the golden fruit” (44). In the myth, Atalanta loses her independence because she slowed her pace during the footrace with Hippomenes in order to grasp at golden apples. To help the South avoid the fate of Atalanta, Du Bois exhorts southern schools to become truth-teaching bodies that can prevent newly emancipated black americans from falling prey to the temptations that may throw them off course. In following Du Bois’s argument, we find that the university is the door through which Southern Black men must pass in order to avoid the ideological snare of “sordid money getting” (45). Du Bois answers the question about what to teach in these new Southern Schools: teach Truth in addition to trade.
In Atlanta Season 1, a similar question exists. Earn is caught trying to resolve two seemingly irresolvable identities: his pursuit of wealth and financial independence vs. his desire to be present for Van and Lottie. The needs of his work life and love life oppose each other. In Episode 1, he nearly texts Van that he loves her but before he can send the message, he receives an incoming business call from Paper Boi, thus disrupting this romantic communication. The needs of his creative career and desire to earn money in a way that pleases him prevent him from satisfying the needs of a loving discourse.
Another example of this fight between work and love life occurs in the Juneteenth Episode. At Van’s request, Earn feigns a faithful relationship with Van in order to present a positive image such that Van can make a good impression to partygoers in order to get employed. Earn’s dishonest charade can only play out for so long. He releases his honest opinion about the “weirdness” of the party at the end of the night, thereby disrupting any possibility of maintaining a positive appearance that could get Van a job. In this single action, his true thoughts emerge, Van loses all job prospects, and Van then wants Earn to stop the car so they can make out. They collectively lose the career opportunity, but regain their romantic intimacy. Was she turned on by his honesty? Was she feeling close with him because he cut through a dishonest veil?
This scene relates to the Du Bois chapter because Earn chooses honesty over “sordid money-getting,” and in so doing, reignites emotional intimacy with Van. Du Bois warns against single minded money getting and praises the university as the place that teaches people to seek truth. Similarly, the plot of Episode 9 instructs that frank words matter more than wealth in an attempt to retore sexual bonds.
This duality between monetary pursuit and honest communication exists within Earn’s name. His name is Earnest (noun for truth) but he’s most often called Earn (imperative to generate wealth). In the final scene of the season, Earn fulfills the command of his nickname as a man (individual, non-dependent) and as a father ($ provider). He earns both an independent living space and earns status as a desirable mate (as evidenced by Van’s invitation for him to spend the night at her place). But to achieve the fullness of his identity as Earn (individual, non-dependent, wealth provider), he must sleep with the image of Benjamin Franklin on his chest rather than the with Van’s human presence upon his chest.
The plot points to the problems of “sordid money-getting” but it also reveals the predicaments involved with dropping completely the temptations of wealth. Earn’s drama in Atlanta Season 1 expresses a catch 22: in order to exist as a self-sustaining individual and give value to Van, Earn must withdraw, sleep alone in the storage unit, and in this way maintain his status as individual rather than dependent. His value is located in his absence, but his absence prevents him from sleeping under the same roof as his family.
But then again, maybe this final scene of the season fully supports Du Bois’s warning about the profit motive. Maybe the season finale wants to say: “Listen up, audience, if you overvalue money and independence, you’ll sleep alone, away from loved ones with two lurid images of a slave master on your chest.” But also, there’s the problem that Earn drops out of Princeton, leaves the university that Du Bois lauded as the wings of Atalanta, the savior from temptation. While the social imperative of Du Bois is clear (i.e. invest in the university), Atlanta Season 1 complicates its message by affirming the complexity of trying to balance the individual necessity to earn a fulfilling living with the social necessity to express truth to loved ones.
This tension is also present when Earn is taking Van to a nice dinner. He doesn’t have enough money to pay, so he calls Alfred for help, who is in the middle of making a “sordid money getting ” deal with the Migos. The quick back-and-forth of these two scenes combine at this moment to posit the possibility that it is not possible to have financial independence and desire to be present for one’s family. We have Alfred making “good” money with drug-dealing and rapping, but he has no real enjoyment because he becomes uncomfortable with his fame and Earn who wants to make money his way, but then struggles to provide for his family. I think this also ties back to Paul’s original point in class for the necessity to “exploit,” or maybe succumb, one’s role in order to make money and be successful in that role.