Analysis Of Claude Mckay 's If We Must Die

Claude McKay was a black man born in Jamaica, he choose literature very on in life and kept with it. He moved to the United States at age twenty three to study at Tuskegee Institute and was immediately shocked by the blatant racism prevalent in Charleston, South Carolina. He moved to New York and shortly after became co-editor of The Liberator, a famous abolitionist newspaper, he wrote some of his most revered poems while working there. He was part of the Harlem Renaissance a movement that was a reawakening of artistic and cultural talents of African American people in the United States and helped to reinvigorate their pride in being black.

During the Harlem Renaissance, many African Americans struggled through a shifting period in time from slavery to equality. Some African Americans expressed their feelings at that time through poetry such as “Yet Do I Marvel” written by Countee Cullen and “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay. In “Yet Do I Marvel” Cullen writes about how the struggles he is facing relate to God and how he is being punished. McKay’s poem is slightly different; he emphasizes the idea of dying an honorable death for his freedom. These two poems are classic examples of how some African Americans felt during the Harlem Renaissance.

Clearly provocative and even chilling, “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay stirs deep and powerful emotions in any who reads it. A poem inspired by violent race riots, it serves as a motivating anthem representative of an entire culture. Graphic and full of vengeance this poem is demanding action, not telling a story. McKay utilizes imagery to its fullest extent creating an end result which any man or woman, black or white, who has ever felt the hard and hateful hand of oppression can relate to.

The poem America by Claude McKay is on its surface a poem combining what America should be and what this country stands for, with what it actually is, and the attitude it projects amongst the people. Mckay uses the form of poetry to express how he, as a Jamaican immigrant, feels about America. He characterizes the bittersweet relationship between striving for the American dream, and being denied that dream due to racism. While the America we are meant to see is a beautiful land of opportunity, McKay see’s as an ugly, flawed, system that crushes the hopes and dreams of the African-American people.

Claude McKay’s poems reflect on American culture during a specific time in history, known as Harlem Renaissance. A time where racism was predominately a way of living for many, this was a beneficial time in history for African Americans. Bringing blacks together in a new movement that had not been present in America. Development in which blacks emphasized themselves by taking on their racial identity. It was a time period in which the black community helped each other to be able to express themselves as who they truly are, creating a true African American visual doing so

In the poem ,“America”, Claude McKay uses figurative language and diction to create a dark tone, a powerful empowering tone, and an optimistic tone. The theme of double consciousness of African-Americans is supported in the poem and the poem itself also connects to the purpose of the Harlem Renaissance which was to fight back racial hate and stereotypes with black empowerment.

McKay stressed the value of the common Negro and joined other Negro Renaissance writers in a rediscovery of Negro folk culture. For in his poetry, he best expressed the New Negro's determination to protect his human dignity, his cultural worth, and his right to a decent life. After working closely with Max Eastman, he traveled to Moscow in 1923 in sympathy with the Bolshevik Revolution and became a sort of national hero there. Claude McKay died in 1948.

Langston Hughes and Claude McKay share similar qualities in their respective poems “I, Too, Sing America” written by Hughes and “America” written by McKay. These poems, though different and unique in style, share common characteristics that make each poem a classic piece of American literature. Hughes and McKay, both African American males, were very notable during the Harlem Renaissance period. Both writers express their views on their individual African Americans perceptions in America in these poems, through their use of diction, tone, theme.

Imagine forbidden to eat in the same restaurant, study in the same school, pray in the same church, or seek medical treatment in the same hospital as a white. This was Black America in the South during the Jim Crow era. Living under a code of laws created to separate the races and maintain a segregated society. The end of World War I brought a lot of change. Black troops were returning home from Western Europe determined to claim the same democracy for which they had fought. The continuous migration of blacks to the north led to labor conflicts. For the first time, whites had to compete with blacks for jobs. Whites turned their anger and frustration on black neighborhoods spurring racial conflict and spreading terror and fear nationwide. The Red Summer of 1919 featured riots occurring in numerous cities including Washington, DC; Chicago, Illinois; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Indianapolis, Indiana. The Elaine Race Riot of 1919, also known as The Elaine Massacre, was the deadliest racial conflict in Arkansas history and possibly even the United States. A shooting incident occurred while a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and

Claude McKay was a Jamaican poet who brought hopefulness to the oppressed during the Harlem Renaissance in his poem, “If We Must Die”. McKay experienced the hardships that colored people were going through because of their race and nationality. He believed that the people should fight for what they believe in, even if it seems like a hopeless cause. McKay uses the concept of dying with dignity to persuade his fellow African-Americans that are being oppressed to fight for what they believe in.

In Claude McKay’s, “Old England” and “Quashie to Buccra” McKay uses dialect as a way to give poems multiple meanings. What may be seen as a simplistic or naïve poem about Jamaican life may actually be full of double meanings that only a select audience would be able to identify. In his poem’s, McKay ultimately gives Negros who work under white colonists the underlying message of black resistance by revolution.

McKay pointedly discusses and examines the radian inequality experienced by some American citizens during the twenties. Throughout the poem, McKay teeters back and forth between his intense positive and negative feelings of both America and the American way of life during this period, for example, his unexplainable love for the country versus the people’s racism which he personally encounters like when he says “l will confess/I love this cultured hell that tests my youth”(America,3,4). This was a very exciting time for many Americans as the roaring twenties were coming into full swing and society was celebrating the decade of carefree decadence, but there was a seedy dark side to America as well. For example, blacks in the South, where McKay

Claude McKay was an important figure during the 1920's in the Harlem Rennaisance. Primarily a poet, McKay used the point of view of the outsider as a prevalent theme in his works. This is best observed in such poems as "Outcast," "America," and "The White House." In these poems, McKay portrays the African-American as the outsiderof western society and its politics and laws and at times, the very land that he is native to.

Claude McKay’s poem, “Exhortation: Summer 1919,” uses many literary devices to articulate his thoughts on events occurring in his hometown. Mckay’s theme throughout his poem is very motivational, with lines such as, “the foolish, even children, are made wise,” and “O my brothers, dreaming for dim centuries,/ Wake from sleeping,” (Line 10; Lines 11-12). Using the title as a hint, the author wants to exhort attention to difficulties faced by people in his “motherland,” (Line 4) Ethiopia. He uses many negative references throughout the poem. “... the very dead are waking,/ Ghosts are turned flesh… ,” (Lines 8-9) adding a dark tone that makes the reader aware of their surroundings. McKay’s use of imagery enforces the overall theme, describing the horrors with phrases such as “Lightning-torches flame the heavens,” (Line 3).

Prefacing the work in Harlem Shadows, McKay opens by describing an organic nature to his writing. “I have never studied poetics; but the forms I have used I am convinced are the once I can work in with the highest degree of spontaneity and freedom.” This form of freedom in the poetry allows the reader to approach the work as a conversation, a conversation in which emotion is at the center of.