Analysis Of Claude Mckay 's Harlem

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In the Allegory of the Cave there are chained prisoners in cave who can only stare at the cave wall in front of them. At the back there is a long entrance with a staircase the width of the cave and a fire burning in the distance. They see only shadows projected in front of them from a raised platform and hear an echo that they attribute to what they observe. They talk about and name the shadows of objects they see before them. To them the truth are the shadows. Then one day one of the prisoners is released. He is told that what he saw before was an illusion. Once he is outside it takes a while for his eyes to adjust to the sun. First he observed the shadows of thing then their reflection and finally the actual object. Remembering his previous state he goes back to the cave and tries to explain that everything is an illusion but they laugh at him and think he’s crazy. They believe it best not to ascend and they choose to remain as they are. The cave represented opinion. The shadows that are cast on to the wall represented physical objects. The prisoners represented the common people (Welles).

Claude McKay is one of the important writers that were brought into the spotlight as a result of the Harlem Renaissance. Some other very important and undisputed personalities from the Harlem Renaissance include the likes of Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer and Zora Neale Hurston. Claude McKay was often regarded as an outcast for his strong opinions against what he thought were political and social injustices. McKay brought to the Renaissance Movement the need and demand for justice for people of every color, race, gender, and sexual orientation. After reading more about Claude McKay, it became obvious that McKay was a very vocal activist that made his views public through his writing. He criticized everything he thought was wrong, including Harlem itself. He spoke about both the beautiful aspects of Harlem and the not so wonderful aspects of the neighborhood that made him a very controversial figure in American literature. He took the side of the weak when nobody else did. Although McKay was often villainized for his outspokenness; he has gone down in history as an exceptional historical figure that said what no one wanted to say and stood up for the weak and defenseless. He is an underrated social reformer. McKay’s ideas became increasingly attractive to many African American youth. Change became a possibility and hope was sparked through Claude McKay’s writings.

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The Allegory of the Cave is a theory put forward by Plato but it is a theory kind of like a metaphor They were stuck in the cave and thought the shadows on the wall were their reality. People are locked in a dark cave. They are chained from birth, they are unable to move their bodies and can only stare straight ahead at the wall of the cave. On the fall objects flash like images being projected onto the wall by objects from the prisoners. A fire shows behind these objects that creates the shadows.

In Plato’s Republic, Socrates describes a cave in which men are chained to the ground to the point where they are not able to move at all, save for their eyes. These men spend their lives staring at the wall of the cave where shadows are projected due to clay figures sitting atop of a wall behind the men while a great fire blazes behind the wall, casting shadows of the clay figures on the cave wall. Due to watching the shadows on the wall for so long, the men perceived the shadows as the ‘Truth.’ Outside of the cave, there are hills, trees, lakes, people, the sky, stars, the moon, and the sun. If one of the men were to be unchained and dragged out of the cave and into the outside world, he would see that the shadows are not the ‘Truth’ but

The Harlem Renaissance period was a time during the 1920s and 1930s in which the African American cultural, social, and artistic build up that took place in Harlem, New York. During this time period African Americans began expressing their thoughts and feelings towards slavery, segregation, as well discrimination received from the Whites. This was a time where many authors, poets and musicians made a stand and spoke out for themselves and their people. Langston Hughes and Claude McKay are two poets during this time period that expressed their thoughts and feelings to this time period, each in very different ways. Hughes and McKay each wrote touching poems that described their point of view to this time period in which they use various methods of tone and theme, as well as similes to convey a vivid image of how it was during this time period for African Americans. Hughes could easily be expressed as the Martin Luther King Jr. of the Harlem Renaissance period, as to where McKay would be considered as Malcolm X of the time period.

The philosopher and mathematician Plato, who established the first learning institution, the Academy in Athens, wrote “Allegory of the Cave”. He is considered one of the most fundamental contributors of his time to both science and philosophy. Socrates, Plato’s mentor, who is conversing with Plato’s brother Glaucon, narrates the tale. Plato uses symbolism throughout the story: chained prisoners represent ignorance and an escaping prisoner represents finding knowledge or truth. Socrates states in the beginning that he wants to “show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened” (211).

207), in turn because this was the only perceived vision the people within the cave began to identify and name these shadows creating their own world where whispers and shadows would become the only known forms of perception “To them the shadows are the only truth”(pp. 208). Until one day one of the chained persons was freed by an unknown. When released the newly unrestricted person was now free to move independently, however this new freedom caused him much pain as his body was not used to such movement, head turns, and walking was quite excruciating. Even more perplexing than these new sensations of discomfort with movements was the vision of new and foreign objects never before seen by anyone within the confines of the cave. At the beginning of his forced ascension he is forced to identify and begin naming these object that he has seen with the puppets that those objects casting shadows not immediately recognizing that these were indeed the objects creating shadows along with the fire that was previously perceived as the sun or the equivocation thereof. Forced further up the cave to the point where he exited the darkness and entered into the sunlight. He was suddenly blinded by the sheer radiance of the light of the real world, the painful adjustment to the sunlight light allowed him to explore further into this new world he had been

Three prisoners have been caught since their childhood and being hold their body of the chain from seeing everything behind in the den. Day by day, they just see shadows on the cave wall by the small fire and name those objects, which they believe as realities by the imagination. Then one of three prisoners is released who finally could explore the truth by himself from his real eyes. What a surprise are shadows of vessels, statues, and figures of animals is kind of a complication of truth. Obviously the free-prisoner would prefer to suffer physical pains to see tangible materials than talking to his fellows in the den. The article“ The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato represents philosophical realism that people believe in what they see “shadows”

From the discrimination and fear African Americans dealt with after their emancipation from slavery less than a century earlier derived art and culture so beautiful and unique, it would become one of the greatest movements in history. The Harlem Renaissance was a time when African Americans had the artistic freedom to express themselves, yet they were still being oppressed by white society. African American musicians, scholars and poets made social and political statements about the poor treatment of blacks and were finally able to express their emotions through art. Black America was voicing the anger and suffering of the previous era, and now others were listening. This movement combined with events such as WWI and II, the Great Depression

A group of people who lived in the cave in the cave all their lives facing the wall. People observe the shadows on the wall of things that pass before the fire behind them and begin to attribute forms to these shadows. According to Socrates, shadows are the closest thing to the reality that prisoners can see. Then he adds that the philosopher is like a prisoner but who is released from the cave and understands that the shadows on the wall are not the reality at all because he is able to perceive the true form of reality instead of the ordinary shadows seen by the prisoners.

Claude McKay is a phenomenal Poet who laid the lifeline for many other African American Poets during his time. It is said that McKay’s poetry is one of the great forces which brought about the “Negro Literary Renaissance”. His contribution to the “Negro Literary Renaissance” revealed his ideal depiction of the “New Negro.” In fact, Claude McKay was the “New Negro” in a new world; in which he only heard the truths rather than encountering the experience. Similar to other artists who have left their homeland to live in America, McKay was fond of the American life.

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