The poem “ If We Must Die” by Claude McKay is a response to Red Summer of 1919. The Red Summer is a series of race riots that took place in over thirty cities in the United States. In the poem the speaker is insisting that he and his comrades are being attacked and they know that they are not going to make it out alive. Since the speaker and his allies know that their demise is definite‚ they want to die fighting with honor and like men. Mckay uses a variety of literary forms when writing this poem
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literary works. As the famous poet and author Claude McKay says “If a man is not faithful to his own individuality‚ he cannot be loyal to anything.” This is what makes Claude McKay such an impactful author during his time. Claude McKay’s acquaintance with the mix of two world’s‚ Jamaica and America‚ have an impact of his works such as “If We Must Die”‚ “America”‚ and “The Harlem Dancer” by
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will preach about seizing the day and achieving what you want in life. However‚ once the poem is read‚ it is realized that Claude McKay is truly advocating for African life. As his other poems also illustrated the pain and struggles African suffered‚ this specific poem asked for the honor they were entitled to. If they are constantly being abused by the white supremacy‚ McKay believed that Africans were in
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I used the poem titled‚ America by Claude McKay as my inspiration to write my own poem called Institution based off my experience in school. I used the literary elements and techniques of the poem to use as influence for mine. For example‚ I used the rhyme scheme‚ syllable count‚ and line count that had been used in McKay’s poem‚ in mine. My poem is exactly 14 lines long‚ ten syllables per line and has a rhyme scheme of A‚ B‚ A‚ B‚ like the McKay’s poem. Using similar techniques helped me to convey
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The captivating true words of writers Claude McKay‚ James Weldon‚ and Jean Toomer resemble the atrocious events of the past couple months of the multiple homicidal murders and brutality by law enforcement against African Americans. Nothing is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and stupidity. The year of 1619 was the beginning of slavery in our country by the Europeans and did not end until 1865 ‚ and it wasn’t until almost fifty years later in 1913 that a white man was finally persecuted and
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of key phrases and metaphor‚ in the poem ¨If We Must Die” by Claude McKay‚ the author shows that African American people wanted to show pride for at least trying to express themselves to be equal because if they must die‚ their lives should show the whites that they didn´t die meaninglessly‚ they wanted the whites to show some respect for other African American in the future for the honor. In the poem ¨ If We Must Die” by Claude McKay‚ the author uses key phrases to show that African American wanted
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A Renaissance man but born in Jamaica‚ grow up in the times where blacks talked about the injustices that they faced in their time‚ and expressed their culture. At the age of seventeen he moved to the U.S. where he spent most of his years writing. Claude quickly learned that racism was a social norm and segregation was a none to be a part of life. The poem “If we must die” on page 1005 vol.1. “If we must die‚ let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot‚”. Was understood to be written
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The Tropics in New York was written by Claude McKay in 1920. McKay was born in Jamaica in 1890 and immigrated to the United States in 1912. The twenty-two years that he lived in Jamaica gave him inspiration for this poem. The poem includes masterful imagery and other literary devices. The poem starts with McKays somewhat cheerful description of luscious tropical fruits: Bananas ripe and green‚ and ginger-root‚ / Cocoa in pods and alligator pears‚ (lines 1-2). At this point‚ the reader is not sure
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Shaymeon Robertson AP English Literature If We Must Die By: Claude McKay If We Must Die‚ by Claude McKay is a sonnet written during the Harlem Renaissance period; a period where there was a flowering of African-American literature and art‚ (1919- mid 1930s). Though the Harlem Renaissance period was a time of thriving people and culture in the African-American community‚ prejudice was still very much active; something
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Claude McKay was a Jamaican poet who created a literary movement and heavily influenced the tone for the Harlem Renaissance. In “If We Must Die”‚ he expresses how he wants to retaliate for prejudice and abuse of African-Americans within a english sonnet. McKay employs the english sonnet form to create a couplet that explains the purpose of this fight as the quatrains describe how they will fight. In the first quatrain McKay introduces the the issue; it is announced that they are being attacked.
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