Claude McKay

Life is not easy and is a constant struggle. Claude Mckay’s most well-known novel, The Harlem Renaissance, was the most momentous event in African American cultural life in the twentieth century. Before the Harlem Renaissance, the African Americans were not free to express themselves completely, but this movement changed that. It affected politics, music, visual arts, and social development (Wiley). This novel led him to write the poem “After the Winter”, which is a poem with an inspirational…

In Claude McKay’s “The Harlem Dancer,” his use of imagery, enjambment, and diction develop the character as a whole by appealing to the senses of the reader and highlighting the oblivion of the audience, allowing the form to unify the content of the poem. Through the use of imagery, the reader is forced to engage all senses, and therefore examine every aspect of the Harlem dancer. Although placed in somewhat of a hectic setting, with “Applauding youths”(Line 1) all around, the speaker allows us…

this race must have committed a crime beyond any else. A crime so cruel only the most evil could’ve conjured into existence. However, they committed no such crime. A race bred for slavery by the upper class of humans. The poem, The Lynching by Claude McKay, is a perfect representation of this torture and disrespect brought to African Americans. It presents a perfect showing of how the black society has been treated and the terrible torture they…

intellectual movement that sparked a new black cultural individuality. Claude McKay was a Jamaican-American author who supported the idea that African-Americans should rely on themselves to become self-governing. McKay's poem "If We Must Die" is composed by his well-known lines after riots in the summer of 1919 that left a significant number of black men, women, and children massacred out of racism. During the course of the poem, McKay states continually that blacks must be ready to die for…

peaceful place. And in McKay’s America he shows a negative view thus, we see the hate, anger, and discrimination. Both poets present their perspectives of America, but they are very different. By exploring the lives and works of both Walt Whitman and Claude McKay, we understand how America, the same country, can be a country to one where only love, law, and freedom prevails and to another it is full of hate and racism. By looking at the lives of these poets, we can get a better…

Melanin is Meaningless Before the civil rights movement people of color were treated completely the opposite of how caucasian people were acted towards. In the poem titled, America, by Claude McKay written in 1919 provides an insight into how an Jamaican-American is not equally treated in America through personal experiences. During the time this poem was written the Harlem Renaissance was taking place and through this event many people of color united together to express themselves through…

Claude McKay’s “America” personifies his love toward our land, but also his hatred because of its racial prejudices. America has been portrayed with the attitude of slavery and unjustness. This leaves a sour taste in McKay’s heart toward the people of America, but his love for the land continues to grow. McKay shows several instances of personification by using America as a human and giving it human-like characteristics. First, McKay writes that “… She feeds me bread of bitterness” (Line 1). In…

Claude McKay’s ‘America’ and Allen Ginsberg’s poem of the same title are both ‘state of the nation’ poems. Which do you think offers the more effective critique of the United States, and why? So, the Allen Ginsberg’s poem and Claude McKay song named America are pieces criticising the state of America in the times that they were written,1956 and 2015 respectively, in their respective times. The question that has been asked of us today is which of these two poems is a more effective critique of…

“The White House” is a poem written by Claude McKay in 1919 to express the struggles of African Americans with the Jim Crow Laws. McKay was born in Jamaica and his work consisted of poetry, novels, and scientific texts. During this time in America, African Americans were experiencing harsh segregation laws; which caused McKay to portray the struggles of African Americans trying to fit in the society. Title of the poem “The White house” is referring to the whites and the house refers to the…

portrays a significant development for one character hearing another through inner thoughts. In Banana Bottom, Claude McKay demonstrates the protagonist Bita Plant’s significant devotion to her cultural idealism such as rape, society of the lower classes, religion, traditions, and world views which created an impact on her self-confidence and heritage. In Banana Bottom written by Claude McKay, the…