The word “hate” usually carries a negative connotation with it. It evokes feelings of anger, distrust, and destruction. It can also lead to isolation and loneliness. But can hate and isolation actually be something positive or even empowering? Claude Mckay was a key figure during the literary movement of the 1920s called the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Jamaica, his work encompasses “vernacular verse celebrating peasant life in Jamaica to poems challenging white authority in America.” (McKay) In his poem, The White City, McKay lashes out against the injustice that permeates New York City and the world. The title, The White City, is a metaphor to the white majority that live in the city and control it. Claude McKay’s The White City depicts an
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As a black Jamaican living in the United States, McKay witnessed and experienced the racial prejudice and oppression faced by blacks. Rather than describing the hatred he feels as a source of destruction that threatens to break and destroy his self-worth, he confidently expresses that it is the reason that his heart still beats and “fills [his] every mood” (McKay 6). Accordingly, this anger and hatred are what nourishes his body and prevents him from living a passionless, tormented life. He describes hate as poetic love and believes that, without hate, his “being would be a skeleton, a shell” (McKay 5). In the previous quote, McKay is implying that he would be empty and hollow inside if this hate didn’t fill him. He has become infatuated with his hatred that he feels he can’t live without it. Yet it is until the last line of the poem that McKay attests to this passionate love clamoring that prejudice and oppression “are sweet like wanton loves because I hate” (McKay 14). Thus, McKay has developed an affection towards his hate and does not wish to get rid of it because he believes he would simply cease to …show more content…
Throughout the poem, he repeatedly enforces the pronoun “I” in the poem to reveal that he has learned to thrive on the energizing power he feels from his hate to resolve a difference found “deep [within] the chambers of [his] heart” (McKay 2). Accordingly, the difference is the hatred he feels from the injustice, racism, and intolerance that dominate the city. But, rather than let the hate he feels blindly control and oppress him, he insists that he will control his own hatred. When he states that he will “not…bend an inch,” McKay has become stubborn and unwilling to conform to the standards society has placed on him (McKay 1). In addition, McKay fully admits that he “bears [hate] nobly” (McKay 3-4). He has learned to accept and take strength from his hatred to live a personal paradise because his hatred provides him the inspiration to become strong and independent. Although he feels powerless to verbally state how he feels, he pursues to transform this hate and anger into a unique and creative way; most notably into poetry. Thus, creating marvels of literary works that wouldn’t have existed if his hatred weren’t there for him to “feed” on (McKay 8). In short, McKay sends a message that argues that empowerment and inspiration are imparted from hardships one encounters in
As a black Jamaican living in the United States, McKay witnessed and experienced the racial prejudice and oppression faced by blacks. Rather than describing the hatred he feels as a source of destruction that threatens to break and destroy his self-worth, he confidently expresses that it is the reason that his heart still beats and “fills [his] every mood” (McKay 6). Accordingly, this anger and hatred are what nourishes his body and prevents him from living a passionless, tormented life. He describes hate as poetic love and believes that, without hate, his “being would be a skeleton, a shell” (McKay 5). In the previous quote, McKay is implying that he would be empty and hollow inside if this hate didn’t fill him. He has become infatuated with his hatred that he feels he can’t live without it. Yet it is until the last line of the poem that McKay attests to this passionate love clamoring that prejudice and oppression “are sweet like wanton loves because I hate” (McKay 14). Thus, McKay has developed an affection towards his hate and does not wish to get rid of it because he believes he would simply cease to …show more content…
Throughout the poem, he repeatedly enforces the pronoun “I” in the poem to reveal that he has learned to thrive on the energizing power he feels from his hate to resolve a difference found “deep [within] the chambers of [his] heart” (McKay 2). Accordingly, the difference is the hatred he feels from the injustice, racism, and intolerance that dominate the city. But, rather than let the hate he feels blindly control and oppress him, he insists that he will control his own hatred. When he states that he will “not…bend an inch,” McKay has become stubborn and unwilling to conform to the standards society has placed on him (McKay 1). In addition, McKay fully admits that he “bears [hate] nobly” (McKay 3-4). He has learned to accept and take strength from his hatred to live a personal paradise because his hatred provides him the inspiration to become strong and independent. Although he feels powerless to verbally state how he feels, he pursues to transform this hate and anger into a unique and creative way; most notably into poetry. Thus, creating marvels of literary works that wouldn’t have existed if his hatred weren’t there for him to “feed” on (McKay 8). In short, McKay sends a message that argues that empowerment and inspiration are imparted from hardships one encounters in