The Tropics Of New York, By Claude Mckay

The meaning of space? What is it and how do we explain it? When it comes to understanding the meaning of space there isn’t just only one way of doing so. There are many different ways of interpreting space. For instance, a meaning of space is a place where one feels security, and freedom. The person in control is basically the treasure of their own space. The meaning of spaces and places get established through the person-to-place bonds that evolve through emotional connection, and understandings of a specific place. From birth you are routinely brought into a culture where an identity is unsurprisingly given to you. An individual’s attachment to a space and place increases in proportion to its proximity to one’s home and the frequency use

of the space. Space is transformed into “place”. Reason so being humans give it boundaries and believe it has value. Place is assembled and reassembled many times by different groups of people all over.
It goes without saying that most if not everyone feels more at ease in the space or place they grew up in, and that individual experiences a large reduction in stress when they reconstruct the settings where they feel most at home.

Creation of place is dynamic and influenced by human perception. Theses meanings are always changing because someone’s perception of a place are always changing, depending on time, context and social interactions. For example, in cities, changing the patterns of social communication can make and unmake places, uplifting or diminishing the appeal of a site. Similar to the poem “The Tropics of New York” by Claude McKay and the novel the “Passing” by Nella Larsen and others. In relation to literature you need to pay attention to the little things in the stories that are read. I choose the texts “Passing” by Nella Larsen and “The Tropics of New” by Claude McKay because the two texts provide great examples that push my point even further. The spaces and places that are discussed in literature are usually meant to make you think in a different way about where you fit in. No matter where or how a space or place is in literature, it will aid a character to hold onto their original values from their unique space or place. Although a person may have an emotional connection with a place it always shapes people’s perspective on things such as new spaces and places, there is an emotional connection to

space
There are a few stories that we have read this year that would provide some good examples. The first is one of the more recent poems “The Tropics of New York,” This poem is about a Jamaican guy moving to the busy city of New York. He gives lots of imagery of his surroundings. “Bananas ripe and green, and ginger root cocoa in pods and alligator pears, and tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit, fit for the highest prize at parish fairs.” Seeing this made him realize that just like the fruits he was too out of place. McKay wants the fruit but can’t get them because the window is in the middle of him and the fruit. Insight of the larger picture the fruits is his home in Jamaica and the window represents the distance from home, reason for leaving Jamaica. Also the window could represent the difference between New York and Jamaica. McKay feels as though he doesn’t fit in New York based on how different it is for his previous space in Jamaica that he used to live before he moved. McKay has a desire for something that is unattainable. He goes on to describe how the different types of fruits brings back memories from when he was growing up, it reminds him of home. He is homesick and misses the life he used to have in Jamaica. The speaker has an emotional connection with the tropics. For instance, in the poem stanza 2 the speaker describes the scenery from home “Sat in the window, bringing memories of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills, and dewy dawns, and mystical skies in benediction over nun-like hills.” For someone growing up in Jamaica going from seeing all these beautiful fruit trees to seeing the same fruits behind a supermarket glass.
He has an emotional bond with the space because he has positive associations from his childhood about the tropics in the poem.

The speaker’s connection to the tropics has influenced his perspective on New York. Also he had a negative emotion towards New York because going there it was not what he was use too. So when he’s there in New York he feels like he is exclude from the place. New York is the complete opposite of what the author is According to McKay “A wave of longing through my body swept, and, hungry for the old, familiar ways I turned aside and bowed my head and wept,” He lives New York but still feels like an

outsider.
Another story that to backs up my point of a person’s personal connection to a space outlines a person’s perspective on the new space or place is “Passing” by Nella Larsen. A brief summary of the passing is about a mixed woman Irene Redfield, who lives in Harlem New York. Irenes get a letter from her old friend Clare Kendry asking to meet because she went to go live with her white aunts. After disregarding the letter, Irene is visited by Clare because Irene never replied to her letter. Clare later on decides she wants to involve herself with the black community even after Irene warned her of the risks if her husband were to find out because he does not know at the time Clare is actually black. Jack also shares some very racist views and makes them uneasy. Irene aware of Clare's attractiveness thinks that Clare is having an affair with Irene’s husband. Towards the end Clare goes with Irene and Brian to a party hosted by Felise on the top floor of a building. The party is broken up by Bellew, who accuses Clare of being a "damned dirty nigger!"(111). Irene ran to Clare, who is seated by an open window. Clare then falls out of the window and proceeds to the ground below, and is pronounced dead. The book doesn’t specifically state whether she falls accidentally, is pushed by Irene, or attempts suicide, is still unclear of.
Clare is a light-skinned mulatto passing for white in high society. She does this because she has a negative association with being black, her space. Clare having a white dad and black mom Clare is stuck and unable to identify with either black or whites. According to Larsen “you’re a nigger, a damned dirty nigger! His voice was a snarl and a moan, an expression of rage and of pain.”(111) in this quote you can view how racist the time was and for Clare being from the black community see an opportunity to be on the better side according to the story. This led her to want to be white because the space dictates white as good and black as bad. Clare’s emotional connection was to the black community before her father died. But after when she moved in with her white aunts she took on a new perception and decided to pretend to be white. “Yes, life went on precisely as before. It was only she that had changed,” (91) stated Larsen. She conformed to white being right so she tries to pass as white instead of being herself. Due to the space giving a bad view on blacks.
In conclusion, the meanings of space and place is establish through emotional connection. We gain a lot from these two stories by examining them alongside each other. Reading both of the passages “The Tropics in New York” and “Passing” gave me a better understanding of the effects that space can have on a person’s identity. Also learn that a character's emotional bond with a space can also define who they are as a person. In “Passing” In “Tropics in New York” McKay’s emotional connection with Jamaica in comparison to Larsen’s Passing Clare being emotionally connected to the black society is fairly similar. Clare allows the space to identify who she is. In where they were brought up had memories in that space or place that cannot be changed. The two stories both have the sense of exclusion from their current space. The feeling of wanting to leave a space or place where they live but they feel like they don't belong there. Overall the two texts discussed are very similar and different in many ways.