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Examples Of Diasporic Culture In Home To Harlem

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2. A ship is a significant term regarding the context of diasporic culture because it is a vehicle which can move between various places. Ideally, it could be used as a tool to explore one’s identity. The image of the ship is utilized in almost all the texts which we have read thus far this semester, from texts such as Claude McKay’s Home to Harlem to the opening scenes of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God to Marcus Garvey’s essays and speeches in Philosophy and Opinion. Where ships remain a metaphorical component of the two fictional texts mentioned, it represents a vehicle which would further a Pan-African agenda in the second. In Home to Harlem, McKay’s protagonist, Jake, spends his time on various forms of transportation, such as trains. However, he begins his tale on a freighter on his way back to Harlem. The first image we see of him is one on a ship, making a choice to come back to the United States. As an American protagonist, Jake’s diasporic identity has been created by ships through the slave trade while simultaneously being steered by ships through his own autonomy regarding decisions on where to live at any moment. As mentioned before, Marcus Garvey’s essays and speeches hinge on the return to Africa. This return would be accomplished through the Black Star, which never began its journey in relocating black individuals to Africa. Overall, both texts represent ships as a vehicle which can give individuals with diasporic backgrounds some form of

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