Claude McKay

Over the years, society has struggled in efforts to make equality an essential ambition. People have strived for being equal in status, privileges, and opportunities. However, these kinds of entitlements are never free of disparagers, doubters, and a number of other complications. A lack of equality leads to riots so one can be understood or it creates enmity amongst social hierarchies. An excess of equality disguises individualism and uniqueness. Equality among different groups has been a…

different and powerful message to the American society could thus either rally the “renaissance” movement which attempted to reinvent new forms of poetry revitalizing older poetry styles or “remain with the domestic or local color realism” (130). Claude McKay decided to opt for the latest and will often use Black music and dance as a framework to express his racial message. Williams Carlos Williams opted to join a niche and controversial poetry trend, the imagism, which seeks to reject the…

In the Harlem Renaissance African American had endured centuries of slavery and the struggle for abolition. Starting in about 1890, African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers. African American culture was reborn in the Harlem Renaissance. The migration eventually relocated hundreds and thousands of African Americans from rural South to the urban North. The Movement also included the new African-American cultural expressions across the urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest United…

America! The land of opportunity. People come from all around searching for a new life in the United States of America. They come with a hope that they will be able to live out the American Dream, to better themselves and their future generations. Authors write about the American Dream so that one can discover what it truly means to live it out for themselves. One of the best things about the American Dream is that it pertains to everyone; no matter where one is coming from they are part of the…

In the poem “If We Must Die”, Claude McKay expresses how he and the people fighting along with him must fight no matter what so they can die with respect. Basically they are fighting a losing battle, but they are going to die prideful because they will not quit. The tone throughout the paper is belligerent, yet encouraging because of the aggressive nature expressed by hostile figurative language yet it is still to encourage the group. The speaker is most likely the leader of the fighting group.…

Natasha Trethewey’s “Incident” and Claude McKay’s “The Lynching” are both written about hate crimes. “Incident” is the generational retelling of the author’s family that witnessed a cross burning on their lawn, as a warning, with unsettling images of the aftermath as well as hints of fear permanently embedded in the family’s memory. Each time it is retold, the experience becomes more dauntingly descriptive. “The Lynching” illustrates the picture of a grim and saddening sight of a malicious…

was a place of expression of pride for the culture of the black. It included the culture that the artists, photographers, writers etc. spoke about their work implicitly. Two of the authors who were known during this time were Langston Hughes and Claude McKay. Langston Hughes’ work did an amazing work of the African culture. His poems include, ‘Black Maria’ and ‘Blues. The lines of the poem ‘Blues’ had a very strong impact on the racial discrimination that was found at that time in the south of…

surrounding their communities, very closely relates to the protest poetry written in the 20th century. They both have the same agenda and address the same issues even though the way and tone in which it’s delivered differs from one another. Poets Claude McKay , Margaret Walker and maya Angelou use their position as a writer to speak on issues with the system but not as bluntly because of the time period and censorship. In Margaret Walker’s protest poem, “For My People” she speaks on the time…

to be one of the most difficult journey’s she has undertaken. She goes through unimaginable efforts to find him and is foiled at all corners. Regardless, she is able to maintain her courage and push on. This valiant effort is clearly exhibited in Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die”. Instead of being pushed to a corner and giving up, one should fight to their dying breath for whatever they believe in. Amid a situation that seems to have no…

American history in the 1920’s saw a movement in political views through the Harlem Renaissance. The literary movement was poised in promoting African American cultural values that were overlooked and underestimated in America at the time. This essay is not for a mere discovery of facts, but to review the political effects that poets where trying to achieve through their work. The Harlem Renaissance’s purpose was to achieve social justice, have an integrated society and to be able to celebrate…