Essay on Usage of the Outsider Theme in Claude McKay's Poetry

Among the critical responses to Home to Harlem, W.E.B. Du Bois’s criticism of Claude McKay’s text seemingly speaks from an essentialist perspective. Du Bois simply found that McKay’s representation of black culture within his novel reproduced stereotypical and crude images which white audiences desired in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance. In response to Du Bois, McKay argued that the novel was created for a black audience, but, to delve even deeper outside of Claude McKay’s views, it could be argued that Home to Harlem does not produce a single identity at all. Rather, Home to Harlem’s perpetual mobility and movement invests in the idea of black “identity as ‘production’” rather than as the exhibition of a “collective ‘one true self’”

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.

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

Racial prejudice often creates a division between the racists and their victims, and thus results in isolation and alienation of the victimized racial group. During the Harlem Renaissance, discrimination and oppression against African Americans was still prevalent, despite the 1920s being a time of expression of African culture. This juxtaposing concept is analyzed through Claude McKay’s poem “The White City”, which explores the perception of an African American speaker, presumably McKay himself, who longs to be a part of the White City, while retaining a deep, inner hatred of the city. Although McKay initially demonstrates his endearment and attachment toward the city through visual imagery, he directly juxtaposes it by expressing his hatred with tenacious, despicable diction. This juxtaposition not only serves to represent the struggle of being an African American in a white supremacist city but also displays McKay’s paradox of appreciating the “White City” while feeling detached from it.

Everyone is different in terms of appearance and life circumstances, so feeling like an outsider is bound to happen at least once during one’s life. In ‘Sonnet, With Bird’, the author felt like an outsider because of his race. “I am the only Indian in this country right now” (Alexie 214). He didn’t think that he fit in because of his skin color, and he is not alone in this feeling. People all over the world feel like outsiders because of how they look. Another thing that people can feel like an outsider because of is their life situation. Because of their economic class, the Kelvey children in ‘The Doll’s House’ felt like outsiders compared to the seemingly more well off children. “...the Kelveys were shunned by everybody” (Mansfield 203). Just because of an insignificant thing like social class, one can be made to feel like an outsider.

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.

First, in Claude McKay’s “Outcast,” Claude McKay argues that the difficulty of being black is unceasing oppression by whites as seen through their inability to connect with their past roots. Claude McKay longs to

I am that girl in the back of the room who will never be described as an outgoing individual. My presence does not come off as that of the most popular kid. I can walk into a room and no one will notice I am there. I was an average kid in high school: I got decent grades, watched the same shows as my peers, celebrated the same holidays, etc. I seemed to fit in on the outside that which makes me different was unnoticeable. Both Langston Hughes and I are different from our peers, we are considered outsiders. Hughes is considered an outsider because of his race. I was an outsider because of my legal status and lack of social security number. Hughes’ status as an outsider is made evident through his daily route to from school. My status as an outsider was evident through the process of applying for college.

McKay uses literary devices such as similes to make a comparisons expressing how the African-Americans were being treated. He does this to show the people what the oppressors view them as and what they should be viewed as. This forces the people to

Each author has used a different text type and therefore has used techniques unique to the text type they have chosen. As Outsider is a poem, the author, Cassidy Stagg, has taken advantage of the use of structure and figurative language. Like

Born in Jamaica, Claude McKay was introduced to a life of ______. Growing up, McKay was sent to live with his oldest brother, a teacher, so that he could be given the best education possible. McKay began to write poetry at the age of 10 under the influence of Walter Jekyll, an English man who soon became his mentor, and encouraged him to write dialect verse. Having heard about Booker T Washington, McKay enrolled himself at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He went in with the intention of studying agronomy; it was at this time he first encountered the harsh realities of racism in America. In 1919, the front pages of Washington newspaper were filled with cases of alleged sexual assaults, said to have been committed by African Americans. The white

struggle of the Afro Americans. It is a dream which has not come true and will