If We Must Die Mckay

If We Must Die Claude McKay’s life was displayed through his poetry usually examining conflicts coming from an outsider point of view. The significance of Claude McKay was that he was a black man who had the desire to write out of a traditional literary heritage. In Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die,” the true meaning between his lines of his work lays an indication as a dominant motivator for the Harlem Renaissance movement. McKay resisted characterization and opposed his standpoint of the Harlem literary community. Early on, McKay faced many issues because of his ethnicity as being a negro writer, but instead of dealing with the opinions of others his main concern was always trying to perfect his poetry. McKay believed the value of his poetry

Therefore, he gave up his interest in the field of agronomy and demolished his college career. In 1914, McKay shared his own traditional educational background which was discovered when he moved to New York City. While in New York, McKay lived in Harlem but was combined to the left-wing Greenwich Village community. To support himself, McKay worked various jobs such as a longshoreman, porter, bartender, and waiter. . His first marriage came along in 1914 which turned out to be disastrous and ended after only six months. In 1917, McKay published his first American poem under the pseudonym Eli Edwards in Seven Arts magazine. In 1919, McKay became acquainted with Frank Harris, the editor of Pearson's Magazine, and Max Eastman, the editor of the Liberator. Also in 1919, McKay's best-known poem, "If We Must Die," was published in the Liberator. It was later considered the most-frequently anthologized poem; in fact, Winston Churchill read it to the British people during World War II. The poem begins, "If we must die, let it not be like hogs/Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot." It ends with the powerful lines, "Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack/Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting