If we must die : A summary At the beginning when I started reading the poem “If we must die” I spent a long time thinking what does this poem mean and then I had to read it a couple of times to understand every sense of each word. Various question started running in my mind I became more interested in the poem as well as the writer. I tried to find out more information about the writer and different meanings for the poem. Indirectly‚ the poem clarify how black people were suffering from the way they were treated and how
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Claude Mckay was an honorable figure in the Harlem Renaissance. His books and poems tell the stories of the lives of the African Americans during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. They had a constant struggle for equality. Claude Mckay is unique in style and tone. Claude Mckay tried to guide African Americans to accept African Culture. Claude McKay was born in Sunny Ville‚ Jamaica‚ and had a very good childhood. Claude was exposed to things that not every child would find interesting. .
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Classmates‚ The poem "America" Claude McKay is a piece of work that minorities‚ immigrants and lower socioeconomic groups can appreciate. This is a story about America being a woman maybe a mother that occasionally loses her temper. This is a critique that is layered and complicated. It is a love hate relationship. The poem seems to use a assonance at the end of each line that connects to the next line after. This builds tension and creates an interesting temp. In the opening lines of the poems were are
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Claude McKay’s poem‚ If We Must Die‚ is a poem about racial inequality and persecution with a very angry tone. The words of this poem exude with the poet’s rage against the injustices done to his race. His hatred of the inequality is evident in his harsh descriptions of his persecutors. However‚ the reader can also feel the emotions of triumph because "If We Must Die" is also a poem of strength‚ rally and hope for the African American race. In the opening line‚ McKay urges his people not to die
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Claude McKay was born in Jamaica‚ West Indies‚ in 1889 (there has been much confusion over whether McKay was born in 1889 or 1890‚ but his birth certificate has been discovered showing that he was born in 1889 [See Winston‚ Footnote 8] ). Educated by his older brother‚ McKay published his first work entitled Songs of Jamaica in 1912‚ the same year he left his homeland for the United States. There he attended Tuskegee Institute‚ although his enrollment was short-lived. He left after just a few
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Claude McKay Claude McKay was one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century African American literature. When mentioning controversial writers‚ Claude McKay comes to mind. He was first of many African American writers who became known for speaking his mind through literature during the early 1900’s. He used his gift of creativity with words to express his feelings on various issues. Claude McKay is an unforgettable African-American writer who was influenced by his culture as well as
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through their art. One person famous for expressing his feelings during these times through his poems was Claude McKay. McKay believed that change was in order and the black community needed to do something in order to make that change. In the poem “If We Must Die‚” Claude McKay calls for racial pride against white oppression through his use of similes‚ metaphors‚ contradictions‚ and biblical allusions. McKay uses a simile to introduce his trope of blacks being hogs trapped in the city. He also establishes
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to America trying to achieve the “American Dream”. The poem exemplifies quality is something worth fighting for as African Americans at the time would not just stand the hatred from racists .McKay uses lines such as “ as a rebel fronts a king in state/ I stand within her walls with not a shred” this displays that America is deeply rooted with racism. The tone of this poem has hope for change! Personification was used to identify in this poem. As the speaker uses lines such as “Her vigor/ her bigness/
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Claude McKay & Dialectical Analysis In Claude McKay’s‚ “Old England” and “Quashie to Buccra” McKay uses dialect as a way to give poems multiple meanings. What may be seen as a simplistic or naïve poem about Jamaican life may actually be full of double meanings that only a select audience would be able to identify. In his poem’s‚ McKay ultimately gives Negros who work under white colonists the underlying message of black resistance by revolution. Perhaps what makes this interpretation so
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In the poem "If We Must Die" by Claude McKay‚ the author cries out to his audience -to his men at arms- to fight back against those that oppress them and are intent to kill them. Though not as rich in poetic symbolism as the poems by Emily Dickinson and George Herbert‚ McKay’s poem evokes a stronger and more inspiring emotional reaction. He achieves this through his rhyme and rhythm scheme‚ through alliteration and repetition‚ and through animal imagery. They shall be examined in reverse order.
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