Claude McKay’s scornful sonnet, “The White House” describes a black man’s feelings towards the federal government. The message of this sonnet is that although segregation, discrimination and racism stems from the government; African Americans must fight on. McKay accomplishes his purpose by writing the poem in first person, repetition of imagery and metaphors and adapting a Shakespearean rhyme scheme.
McKay is the author and the poem is written in first person but the author may not be the subject of the poem. The author could be describing someone else’s perspective when he writes “I must” or “I possess”. Writing in first poem allows the reader a more personal experience and helps them to sympathized and perhaps identify with the subject. By giving the reader access into the mind and
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In the poem, the White House signifies the discrimination and hate towards the black race by calling it a “shuttered door of glass”. This implies that the government’s motives are see through and fragile. Meaning that that people understand the government is trying to oppress African Americans but that if they stand up and fight the entire system could collapse and end in a victory for equality. The foundation of discrimination is unstable and “the pavement slabs burn loose” as the fight for racial equality grows stronger. The poem is a call to action, it’s calling to breaks loose the foundations of hate within the United States and to break the standard of oppression with “courage and grace”. Attempting to rid society of racism is no small task and the poem advises one “to search for wisdom every hour” and to “find in it the superhuman power to hold to the letter of your law”. The key word is “superhuman” implying that the task is near impossible but through wisdom the goal of fighting for African Americans rights can be continued and perhaps the fight can be
Johnson begins his poem on behalf of the hardships of African Americans by acknowledging that after all the Africans hardships and pain they’ve been through, they are on the verge of freedom as long as they stick together. The way Johnson uses diction to show his audience how to face hardships with unity, is by the use of the strong phrases or words used. Johnson implies, “Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,” (28), and “Out from the gloomy past, Till now we stand at last.”(19-20). The outpour of emotions with the use of strong diction words in that quote, informs the reader that as long as we the people
During the Harlem Renaissance, both Claude McKay and Langston Hughes developed an analysis of their time period through poetry. Each writer has a different poem but allude to the same theme. The White House by Claude McKay and I, Too, Sing, America by Langston Hughes makes a relevant comparison to the racial inequality during the 1900s. Both make a point about how White America has withheld equal rights from Blacks or Black America, making it hard for them to survive. More specifically, The White House speaks about the type of oppression being experienced during racial segregation and trying to triumph over it while I, Too, Sing, America speak about what created their oppression and envisioning change in the future.
There is a fire in the building ravaging everything in its path. One tries to escape, but low and behold, the fire escape is inside and there is no way out. African Americans are trapped in their position, for they can not possibly change their skin color. Their skin is just as much as a physical prison as is the actual building. The red color of the building symbolizes hatred and violence, and for a fact, African Americans face opposition as soon as they step out of line, or ask for too much. The mouth open in one of the windows of the building, symbolizes a cry of help. A cry of help that is muffled by the dense brick walls, and in real life, ignored and oppressed by society’s unreasonable, ancient justifications. Additionally, bricks are all the same, usually indistinguishable. In the same light, African Americans are seen as one group rather than individuals, which more often than not, turns out to be a negative image. In sum, society has constructed a prison for African Americans and the brick building is a physical
This darkly satiric poem is about cultural imperialism. Dawe uses an extended metaphor: the mother is America and the child represents a younger, developing nation, which is slowly being imbued with American value systems. The figure of a mother becomes synonymous with the United States. Even this most basic of human relationships has been perverted by the consumer culture. The poem begins with the seemingly positive statement of fact 'She loves him ...’. The punctuation however creates a feeling of unease, that all is not as it seems, that there is a subtext that qualifies this apparently natural emotional attachment. From the outset it is established that the child has no real choice, that he must accept the 'beneficence of that motherhood', that the nature of relationships will always be one where the more powerful figure exerts control over the less developed, weaker being. The verb 'beamed' suggests powerful sunlight, the emotional power of the dominant person: the mother. The stanza concludes with a rhetorical question, as if undeniably the child must accept the mother's gift of love. Dawe then moves on to examine the nature of that form of maternal love. The second stanza deals with the way that the mother comforts the child, 'Shoosh ... shoosh ... whenever a vague passing spasm of loss troubles him'. The alliterative description of her 'fat friendly features' suggests comfort and warmth. In this world pain is repressed, real emotion pacified, in order to maintain the illusion that the world is perfect. One must not question the wisdom of the omnipotent mother figure. The phrase 'She loves him...' is repeated. This action of loving is seen as protecting, insulating the child. In much the same way our consumer cultur...
Critic Robert Bone writes: He attained a universal vision by ignoring race as a local tr... ... middle of paper ... ... if this balance between the past and the ideas for the future can be achieved then there will come about a stronger more identifiable modern Black culture that does not add to segregation, but adds to American culture. This hope is clear in his poem
Another example of Hughes’s constant struggles with racism and his inner and thoughtful response to that is clearly seen when he recalls being denied the right to sit at the same table. His point of view identifies that he was not able to sit at the table because he was an African-American. Yet, he remains very optimistic in not letting his misfortune please what is considered the “white-man” in the poem. Langston Hughes’s states,
Reading these poems is an incredible learning experience because it allows readers to view segregation through the eyes of someone most affected by it. In the U.S. History course I took I didn’t take away the details and specific examples I did from reading and researching Brooks’ work. For example, the history textbook only mentioned one specific person who was affected by segregation, that person was Rosa Parks. The example of Rosa Parks demonstrated just one isolated incident of how black people were punished if they disobeyed the laws of segregation. In contrast, Brooks’ work demonstrates the everyday lives of black people living with segregation, which provides a much different perspective than what people are used to. An example, of this would be in Brooks’ poem “Bronzeville Woman in a Red Hat”. The speaker of this poem hired a black maid and referred to her as “it”(103). By not using the maid’s name or using the pronoun her, the speaker is dehumanizing the maid. This poem expresses to readers that white people thought that black people weren’t like them, that they weren’t even
...ites a short 33-line poem that simply shows the barriers between races in the time period when racism was still openly practiced through segregation and discrimination. The poem captures the African American tenant’s frustrations towards the landlord as well as the racism shown by the landlord. The poem is a great illustration of the time period, and it shows how relevant discrimination was in everyday life in the nineteen-forties. It is important for the author to use the selected literary devices to help better illustrate his point. Each literary device in the poem helps exemplify the author’s intent: to increase awareness of the racism in the society in the time period.
The poem America by Claude McKay is on its surface a poem combining what America should be and what this country stands for, with what it actually is, and the attitude it projects amongst the people. Mckay uses the form of poetry to express how he, as a Jamaican immigrant, feels about America. He characterizes the bittersweet relationship between striving for the American dream, and being denied that dream due to racism. While the America we are meant to see is a beautiful land of opportunity, McKay see’s as an ugly, flawed, system that crushes the hopes and dreams of the African-American people.
Claude McKay was an important figure during the 1920's in the Harlem Rennaisance. Primarily a poet, McKay used the point of view of the outsider as a prevalent theme in his works. This is best observed in such poems as "Outcast," "America," and "The White House." In these poems, McKay portrays the African-American as the outsiderof western society and its politics and laws and at times, the very land that he is native to.
...rayer. (The frequent use of religious imagery in the poem may be a tacit acknowledgement of the important and influential role African-American preachers and ministers have played in the struggle against discrimination.) The prayer is, first, a call to black people to continue to better themselves through hard work ("Hail! great, gritty, grimy hands") and, second, a plea for pity from the Christian God over the "toiling lands," though whether this means the South, the North, or America as a whole is not indicated—nor does it matter much. For the most important message comes through, Du Bois's passionate plea that, united in a common history, African Americans must be united in a common pride in who they are and in a common determination to take control of their own destiny and change the future. Thus, the poem ends with its three most important words: "I am black."
... They focus more on the cultural aspects of identity that Hughes is very proud of, while poems “Democracy” and “Theme for English B” touch on some of the social concerns that created a struggle for dignity as a black person in the early/mid twentieth century. The “Democracy” is a slightly stern and direct request to take action and fight for civil rights. The “Theme for English B” is a compassionate and low-key personal anecdote that reiterates the unpracticed concept that “all men are created equal”. Despite the difference in tone and subject, all four poems relate to the central theme that dignity is something that white men may take for granted, but Langston Hughes, as a black man and a writer, sees and feels dignity as a fight and a struggle that he faces and that the black community as a whole faces every day.
The poem itself is a technique Robert Frost uses to convey his ideas. Behind the literal representation of building walls, there is a deeper metaphoric meaning, which reflects people's attitudes towards others. It reflects the social barriers people build, to provide a sense of personal security and comfort, in the belief that barriers are a source of protection which will make people less vulnerable to their fears. Robert Frost's ideas are communicated strongly through the perspective of the narrator in the poem, the 'I' voice, who questions the need for barriers. The use of conversation and the thoughts of the narrator reflect the poet's own thoughts. In line thirty to line thirty-five, the narrator questions the purpose of a wall. He has an open disposition and does not understand the need to 'wall in' or 'wall out' anything or anyone.
Over the course of the century chronicling the helm of slavery, the emancipation, and the push for civil, equal, and human rights, black literary scholars have pressed to have their voice heard in the midst a country that would dare classify a black as a second class citizen. Often, literary modes of communication were employed to accomplish just that. Black scholars used the often little education they received to produce a body of works that would seek to beckon the cause of freedom and help blacks tarry through the cruelties, inadequacies, and inconveniences of their oppressed condition. To capture the black experience in America was one of the sole aims of black literature. However, we as scholars of these bodies of works today are often unsure as to whether or not we can indeed coin the phrase “Black Literature” or, in this case, “Black poetry”. Is there such a thing? If so, how do we define the term, and what body of writing can we use to determine the validity of the definition. Such is the aim of this essay because we can indeed call a poem “Black”. We can define “Black poetry” as a body of writing written by an African-American in the United States that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of an experience or set of experiences inextricably linked to black people, characterizes a furious call or pursuit of freedom, and attempts to capture the black condition in a language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm. An examination of several works of poetry by various Black scholars should suffice to prove that the definition does hold and that “Black Poetry” is a term that we can use.
The poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” symbolically connects the fate of the speaker of the poem and his African American community to the indestructible and powerful force on Earth- the river. The river embodies both power and dominance but also a sense of comfort. The poem is a prime example of the message of hope and perseverance to anyone who has suffered or is currently suffering oppression and inequality in their lives and in society. The speaker in the poem pledges to the reader that with hard-work, determination, and willpower to succeed, he will get where he is going regardless of the obstacles and challenges he may face on his path of reaching his goals in life.