Analysis Of If We Must Die By Claude Mckay

perfectly depicts how war can invade a country and the lives of those who inhabit it. It also criticizes the Civil War without stating or directly referring to it at any time. The poem is composed of three stanzas and twenty one verses. The meter and the rhyme are free, but the poem still possesses a certain rhythm- linked to the choice of words- that resemble the sounds of the drums.

Again in the fifth line he requests that “If we must die, O let us nobly die,/ So that our precious blood may not be shed/ In vain” (5-7). He reasons that if there is to be bloodshed regardless, then the blood ought not to be shed without a fight. They should not lose their “precious blood” without any significance or effect, and not in an irreverent manner. If they succeed in avoidance of such vain, then McKay claims that “even the monsters we defy/ Shall be constrained to honor us through dead!” (7-8) McKay knows that upon a proud death, even those they fought will be compelled to acknowledge their bravery and pride. By referring to the enemy as “monsters,” McKay makes it increasingly difficult to not follow him. There is no pity or compromising with monsters and every man, woman, and child has his or her own image of a monster. Given this open description they are then free to envision the monster as they see and feel it. They can construct it based on their own fears.

In the middle of the poem, the speaker arrives at the number of casualties from the war. When he reads this number he can’t believe that he is still alive. As he reads down the names he uses the visual imagery and simile to describe how he expected to find his own name in “letters like smoke” (line 16). This helps the reader understand how lucky the speaker felt about somehow escaping the war still alive. As he goes

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

The poem was written to show that war is a waste of human life as the soldier knows he will die one day as well as the men around him, just some quicker than others. This can be evident in stanza four of the poem: “I know I’ll join them somewhere, one day.” The language used is more casual than formative, this is effective as it shows the personal feelings and thoughts of the soldier during the time

The poem starts with similar word choices as ‘The Soldier’ but written in the perspective of the mother. The mother tells his son that when he dies he will be in a place of ‘quietness’ and free from the ‘loss and bloodshed’. This reinforces the fact that the battlefield was full of horrors and death. The poem then moves onto how ‘men may rest themselves and dream of nought’ explaining that the soldiers do not have to fear for their lives after their death. This illustrates how they feared for their lives and had negative connotations.

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.

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.

In “America” Claude McKay expresses the struggles that African American people have faced at the hands of the country that they call their home. The poem explores the dual persona that African American 's experienced during the time and the conflict that arose because of it. Claude McKay 's political beliefs and how he experienced life in America are expressed throughout the poem. The speaker of the poem addresses both the love and bitterness that he feels for his country as an example of the struggle of being both black and American during the first half of the 1900s. America constantly tested and fought African Americans during this time. However, this just made them stronger, and the Harlem Renaissance and the poems and stories produced during it are an example of their strength taking form.

In Patrick Henry’s “Speech of the Virginia Convention”, he tries to persuade colonists to fight a war against the English. When Patrick Henry delivered his speech, it was a time of rebellion He did this speech to tell the people, there is no other option, but to go to war. To persuade the people, he must use several main rhetorical devices. For example, he uses these rhetorical devices, to appeal to the people: ethos, pathos, and parallelism. He does a good job throughout this speech convincing people to go to war. One quote that ties the whole speech together is, “Give me liberty, or give me death.” In this quote, Henry says that he would rather die, than live in a world, with no freedom.

McKay talks about how that living in a country that is just filled with racism is extremely hard, but he still loves America because she made him a stronger person. He says that “her hate” gave him strength and that he is willing to fight against her like “a rebel fronts a king in state.” He knows how mighty American is and loves her because of that, but time is being wasted. The longer America is ignorant and racist towards African Americans, the more time is waste because many African Americans can achieve amazing things for America.

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.

causes the poem to flow, and thus lightens up the dark and serious issue of war. The lines "But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place." are easy to read; however, their meaning is extremely

The point of the poem was to deliver the horrors of war to the public

For either the crying orphans or the soldiers being led into an unwinnable side of a war, both groups found their place visiting the Kingdom of God. Although the orphans and soldiers both were both killed as a similarity, each side has two completely different backgrounds. The two poems based on each group include both “The Diameter Of The Bomb”, by Yehuda Amichai, and “If We Must Die”, by Claude McKay. Although both poems are completely different in their own ways, both poems can be compared in the aspect of death, family, fear, etc. In the poems “The Diameter Of The Bomb” and “If We Must Die”, the authors both illustrate the theme of warfare to express the tone of their poems. Each poem represents both a meaning and a message behind them