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Harlem Renaissance Literature Analysis

Decent Essays

Conflict is a theme that is found in nearly every story and work. Different pieces and genres come with all different types of conflict. This particular theme is often what sets up a story and is what makes it interesting. The ways that characters interact with and resolve conflicts are what make them unique. Within Harlem Renaissance works, the conflicts present often replicate what African American people were going through in America during this time period. Specifically, in the Harlem Renaissance-era poems If We Must Die by Claude McKay and Theme for English B by Langston Hughes, the authors use various metaphors and other literary devices to create allusions to what their people were going through during this time period. First, If We Must Die instantly creates a sense of conflict with the title itself. Death usually relates to conflict in literature and placing the word “die” in the title suddenly creates a thought that there will be conflict within this piece. Overall, the conflict within this poem seems to be African American people and their struggles with being a minority. McKay creates very strong imagery within this short poem by initially comparing his people to hogs and comparing their combatants to “hungry dogs.” By using the symbols of hogs and dogs, the author is saying that his people do not want to die like helpless and weak pigs at the hands of presumably vicious and hungry dogs. It is interesting to note the progression of these two groups of people

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