Preview

The White House Mckay Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
488 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The White House Mckay Analysis
The topic of segregation has been heavily debated for many years, and it still is today in our society. Dating back to the Civil War and the events that spurred after it, African Americans have consistently faced obstacles to gain the acceptance of Americans, and there has been no significant progress made towards gaining equal opportunities for everyone. The White House by Claude McKay was written in 1922, during a time when African Americans were not thought of as equals with white Americans. McKay uses symbolism and metaphors to effectively discuss the fact that African Americans are consistently facing oppression and are discriminated against, and that there needs to be change made to restore equality.

The author blends together symbols and metaphors to create an underlying theme of the recurring racism many face in society. McKay …show more content…
These “doors being shut” is a metaphor for these possibilities being snatched from them. Because of this, they are not able to live up to the American Dream they came to the U.S. to achieve, and McKay shows disgust with the middle-class Americans.The “tightened face” being “sharp as steel” symbolizes the composure African Americans are trying to keep in spite of the oppression being set forth by the American people and their government. He is angered with their hypocrisy, and wishes to promote the resilient images of African Americans despite the false pretenses the Americans present. Towards the end of the poem, McKay says, “Oh, I must keep my heart inviolate Against the potent poison of your hate,” to show that the recurring racism is leaving a dark effect on many people, including the African Americans. The closing of the poem shows that the author / narrator wishes to not be a part of the ongoing violence and racism in
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    To What Extent Was War a Catalyst for the Development of Civil Rights in the United States in the Period 1877 to 1981?
    • 2766 Words
    • 12 Pages

    To What Extent Was War a Catalyst for the Development of Civil Rights in the United States in the Period 1877 to 1981?

    At the beginning of the 1870s Blacks had caught a glimpse at the end of the tunnel for the development of Civil Rights. With the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862 followed by the 13th and 14th Amendment freed slaves could now travel freely, own property and become educated, some of the most fundamental of civil rights. However after the release of three and a half million slaves into American society it would be some time before this declaration would become reality. In the south slaves continued to work for white landowners under new share cropping scheme, education and political activism remained low resulting in not a single senate holding a black majority. Blacks remained, in the eyes of many southerners ‘a perfectly stupid race’ that ‘can never rise to a very high plane’ President Thedore Roosevelt. However over the following centaury Civil Rights changed dramatically with the Spanish – America War, First World War, Second World War, Cold War and the War in Vietnam. Further change was also due to the rising support for Negro rights groups and the pushing by congress for an increase in Civil Rights.…

    • 2766 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Spike Lee Four Little Girls
    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Spike Lee Four Little Girls

    Lee wants the viewer to respond with shock and horror to this evidence of the legacy of racism in American society. He shows how racism ran so deep in the South that even children became causalities of the efforts to integrate.…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    To what extent do you agree that the lives of Black Americans improved significantly between 1945-52
    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages

    To what extent do you agree that the lives of Black Americans improved significantly between 1945-52

    The lives of Black Americans during 1945-52 were shaped greatly by the reconstruction of America following the Civil War a century earlier; the lives of these people were largely dictated, especially in the Southern states, by policies of disenfranchisement and segregation implemented between these time periods, specifically the ‘Jim crow’ laws, though it can be said that certain occurrences, such as Trumans input and the NAAPC between these times, began to combat the oppression Black Americans faced, which in turn began to improve their lives for the better. The movements that occurred provided the platform for the changes that were implemented in later years, but because of society’s unwillingness to accept change, the larger part of what could have happened was merely the catalyst which in time won the support of the majority and allowed Black Americans lives to be changed for the better.…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    "Strange Career of Jim Crow
    • 624 Words
    • 2 Pages

    "Strange Career of Jim Crow

    “The Strange Career of Jim Crow” is considered one of the great works of Southern history and was published in 1955. The book gives an analysis of the history of Jim Crow laws and shed light to the fact that segregation actually may have caused more of a divide than slavery. It also shows that there was considerable mixing of the races during the reconstruction period. The book was also cited to counter arguments for segregation so often that Martin Luther King Jr. called it “the historical Bible of the civil rights movement.”…

    • 624 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Fiv Ma Rainey's 'Mother Of The Blues'
    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Fiv Ma Rainey's 'Mother Of The Blues'

    Many nations throughout history have admired the wealth and democratic freedoms that individuals have in America. This admiration stems from the special nature of our population, choice of religious beliefs, racial mix of people, and cultural that makes this nation a melting pot. African American culture is one of several nationalities that make America special. Without African Americans contributions this nation would not be as great of a country. Even though we continue to face racial division in the United States, African Americans within that last 40 years have contributed positively to political issues as well as educational influence. This essay will explore the lives of…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Mat Johnson's Incognegro Analysis
    • 1823 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Mat Johnson's Incognegro Analysis

    Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution were historical milestones in which the ever controversial topic of racial equality was first challenged. In theory, these two movements laid the groundwork for a racially equal United States of America. A country in which every member, regardless of skin color, or race were to be treated equally under the eyes of the law and to one day be treated as equals within all realms of society. As historic and powerful as these movements were, they did little to quell racism and unfair treatment of African Americans in the United States. Following these two movements and the ending of the civil war, African Americans continued to be harshly mistreated by members of white America, as numerous members of the African American race were threatened, falsely accused of crimes, beaten, raped and killed as a result of Jim Crow laws and the Southern tradition of lynching, or hanging African Americans. Mat Johnson’s graphic Novel, Incognegro, chronicling the trials and tribulations of Zane, an African American journalist who pretends to be white to expose the brutal reality of segregation against African Americans in the South, is a graphic manifestation of both the historical accuracy and cultural reality of segregation and brutal mistreatment of African Americans within the Jim Crow South. Johnson’s vivd dramatizations of African Americans being brutally murdered by lynching, African Americans, “passing,” as whites, and African Americans being unfairly tried under the eyes of the law, sheds historically accurate light on an important, yet swept under the rug tradition of a time when racial segregation against African Americans served as a cultural identity that came to define cultural…

    • 1823 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    The Shifting Heart Analysis
    • 1671 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Shifting Heart Analysis

    The idea is constantly presented as negative and a destructive tendency, not only in past literature but in modern literature as well. The message surpasses cultural barriers and seems to show a negative impact on not only the person who is racially degraded but the society which condones it is presented in a bad light. The Shifting Heart by Richard Beynon and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini are two prime examples of how racism can affect people and society and how the constant conditioning of people will cause them to have underlying issues, such as racist tendencies and intolerance. They show the psychology of racism is underpinned by social values and a “mob mentality”, both texts portray accurate representations of racism in the time but also show how we can use this hindsight to move towards a society which has no racial…

    • 1671 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    1989 Dbq- Booker T. Washington
    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages

    1989 Dbq- Booker T. Washington

    Segregation has been present in the United States since the early 1600s. It was not until about fifty years ago that Black Americans were granted full and equal rights. During the period of 1877-1915, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois took antithesis views on segregation; one being pacifying and conscious, and the other immediate and radical.…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Kara Walker
    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Kara Walker

    For African Americans, the pain of racism is ever present, and Walker 's world is devoid of the sinless and the passive black victim. “It 's born out of her own anger. "One thing that makes me angry," Walker says, "is the prevalence of so many brown bodies around the world being destroyed.”( 1. Combs, Marianne. Kara Walker 's art traces the color line. ) Walker mines the source of this discomfort from submerged history and goes so deep that everyone is involved. She knows that stereotypes have not disappeared: they have only been hidden. The animated figures of her cut-paper wall murals attempt to change a painful past into satire. Consequently, African Americans can conquer a fear of racism in which the themes of power and exploitation continue to have deep meaning for them in contemporary American society.…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Great Men Analysis
    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Great Men Analysis

    Furthermore, as he chooses to present a White-centered narrative that pays little attention to both the ideas and the methods of the civil rights activist, he diminishes the historical importance of African American activists in transforming the United States by making it both politically and socially more inclusive. The “Great Men” narrative that Lawson utilizes fails to present the complexity of the civil rights movement and the resilience of the activist, who, despite the numerous setbacks they suffered, continued to fight for their rights. By not paying any attention to the grassroots, Lawson creates a false picture of racial and social progress. He implicitly suggests that having a more or less amicable administration in place would be sufficient to maintain or advance the interests of historically marginalized groups. That is unfortunate, particularly because the article was published at the turn of the century, long after conservative forces had begun to dismantle some of the hard-won reforms. Consequently, a more inclusive approach that depicts the essential groundwork before and after the national leaders of the movement negotiated legislative reforms with the national government, would have been warranted.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ethic Notions
    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Ethic Notions

    This video presents a symbolic integrationist perspective. It evaluates how people in the United States have used symbols to belittle a race of people. Society used certain symbols and caricatures to communicate ideas to the general public.…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Souls of Black Folks
    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Souls of Black Folks

    Africans Americans faced many problems after being set free after the Emancipation Proclamation. They were freed men according to the law, but were they really free? They still faced the same racism and prosecution that they had before when they were slaves. They were still treated badly by the white man, as a second class. A black man couldn’t go to the same schools, ride on the same buses, or even drink out of the same drinking fountain as a white man. There were many double standards throughout society.4…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    To Kill A Mockingbird Rhetorical Analysis
    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages

    To Kill A Mockingbird Rhetorical Analysis

    All of the characters in this book played a pivotal role in developing the themes of the book: justice, racism, prejudice, and sexism. The use of rhetorical devices allows for the author’s ideas to surface and enable the readers to encapsulate the concept of the text. Harper Lee used…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Segregation: Martin Luther King
    • 1189 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Segregation: Martin Luther King

    In the early 1900s America was torn apart in a battle known as segregation. The African American race was treated unjustly and faced a tough journey. They were shoved aside and torn apart from the Caucasian Americans. There was separate railroad cars, schools, and even to such small insignificant things as separate water fountains. The white children were being taught to treat African Americans as dirty people who deserved to be separate. It created a prejudice that would take years to overcome, to completely be unselfish again. Caucasian Americans were very wrong in their thinking and they never thought about how it made African Americans feel. The African Americans of this time period were struggling to overcome this new time where they were treated as outsiders, as if they were not a part of the American people. Every single human being is uniquely different and segregation was a constant battle our fellow Americans fought to overcome, all for the sole purpose of gaining equality.…

    • 1189 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Racial Inequality In America
    • 1803 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Racial Inequality In America

    Even though blacks were being separated far from others, blacks in congress presented all the African-American in the United States (Greenberg 2003, 345). Black member in congress still faced a form of segregation for ten years, which was formally known as the “Jim Crow” (Greenberg 2003, 18,530-534). The Jim Crow law was the creation of segregation in the Southern States, affecting the freedom of the society of blacks that lasted until around 1960s. This type of segregation was present in churches, hospitals, and many other public spaces; leaving blacks with no good jobs, it wasn't until World War 2, separating people based on race decreased (Greenberg 2003, 533-536). This affected United States for the worse, many lives were lost, including all racial groups. However, the Jim Crow law said again the power of blacks, showing society that blacks will constantly fight for equality. The time in history of this segregation, economic is still present today. As Barack Obama illustrates, “The past isn't dead and buried”. He perpetuated, “it isn't even past. We do not need to repeat the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to…

    • 1803 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More

Related Topics