If We Must Die By Claude Mckay Essay

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The 1900’s were a rough time for African Americans. Racism and slavery were what ruled the minds of people at that time. As racism is still a big problem in our world today, many can agree that it has improved tremendously. In the poem If We Must Die by Claude Mckay, the poet is overall describing the struggle of an African American man and his mistreatment because of his color. He is describing how the African American men want to die with pride and dignity. The speaker of the poem may not be Claude Mckay, but Claude is an African American man so he has the ability to relate to the speaker in his poem. The speaker’s attitude and tone towards the situation in the poem is anger and motivation. He is angry that African Americans are being treated so poorly, yet he is very motivated to make sure him and other African Americans at least try and fight back and make sure they all die with dignity. The poem also includes many literary techniques that contribute to the meaning. …show more content…

This contributes to the poem’s meaning by showing how animals symbolize the mistreatment of the African Americans and their fight to earn honor. The poem starts out by saying “if we must die, let it not be like hogs” (1). The comparison of their death to hogs shows how horrific and brutal their death is capable of being. It is also symbolizing the honor the men hold because of how the line is written. The men are practically saying that if they do not have the option between life and death, they want their death to at least not be treated like an animals death. Animals are used as a symbol of honor and mistreatment again in the poem when it says “like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack/pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back” (13/14). These lines show how animals symbolize mistreatment and honor by saying that although they are being pressed up to walls in packs like animals, they will still have honor and dignity to be able to fight

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