If We Must Die By Claude Mckay

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. Three of his literary devices he used in “ If we must die” are theme, imagery and form.
The themes of “ If We Must Die” is honor, nobility and bravery. The speaker knows that he and his friends will die, but he wants them to die fighting nobly and