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Literary Analysis Of The White House By Claude Mckay

Decent Essays

The White House by Claude McKay
Main Idea: The poet, born in Jamaica and moved to America, has to go through the day to day struggles in order to tolerate the hate he receives only because of his race. The people do not see him for who he really is, however, he can see them for who they really are. Ultimately, he sees himself as better than his haters because he never gives into his rage like the people do.
Theme(s): Racial Segregation, Racial Discrimination, Democracy, White Supremacy.
Methods: The poet in the very first line uses he two words “Your” and “my” to create clear separation or division.
The poet utilizes a metaphor of a glass door with shutters to express how he is shut out of something that is supposed to be transparent. There is also irony with this because they are trying to block him out, but he can still see them clearly.
As for the structural rhyme, the external rhyme is formal and smooth, but the internal rhyme is chaotic. This is done purposely to represent how on the inside, he is raging and angry, but on the outside he is cool and calm.
The poet uses a lot of plosive sounding words such as /s/, /t/, and /p/ to denote his anger and resentment.
The structure of this poem is a sonnet and sonnets are supposed to be love poems. The poet talks about hate to introduce a sense of irony.
Quotes: “Your door is shut against my tightened face.” “I possess the courage and the grace to bear my anger proudly and unbent.” “Where boldly shines your shuttered door of

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