Literary Techniques Used In The Lynching By Claude Mckay

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“The Lynching” by Claude McKay is a poem written in 1922 describing the cruel murder of a black man by a white mob and the aftermath of the event. McKay uses visual imagery, irony, dark diction and an incoherent rhyme scheme to emphasize his emotions when writing of dark, uncompassionate cruelty, disturbing murder and how racism is a continuous, inevitable cycle.

When using visual imagery to describe setting and integrating pathetic fallacy and irony, McKay emphasizes the cruelty of murder and racism. He shows how the white mob around the single lynched man lack human emotion when he writes, “[t]he women thronged to look, but never a one / Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue” (McKay 11-12). The women gather around to see the event, yet none of them show compassion or remorse towards the
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These lines also show how the author integrates a pathetic fallacy into the poem, as the event’s setting reflects the emotionless and uncompassionate mood of the poem. McKay also portrays how racism and violence against people of color is passed on through generations by writing “[a]nd little lads, lynchers that were to be / Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.” (McKay 13-14). The children in this communities are raised to be lynchers just like their parents, as they dance around the man, not taking in the impact of the horrible event that just took place. McKay also uses irony and symbolism while using visual imagery throughout the poem; for example, when he writes “[a]ll night a bright and solitary star / (Perchance the one that ever guided him, / Yet gave him up a last to Fate’s wild whim)” (McKay 5-7)”. The North Star is a supposed to be a symbol of freedom, guiding the victim to safety, yet it instead led him to be lynched, failing the victim, making the reference to the star

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