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Claude Mckay Figurative Language

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During the Harlem Renaissance, art, poetry, music, and community thrived among the citizens of Harlem, who were mostly people of color. A common theme among every piece created is the acknowledgement of past and present oppressions. Claude McKay does exactly this in his poem “If We Must Die”. He uses the point of view of the poem and figurative language to demonstrate how dire the situation of the oppressed is and has been, which helps to convey how if they do not stand up for themselves, the same future is guaranteed for their descendants. The point of view of the poem is incredibly important to how McKay tells the story. This is particularly evident in lines like “O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!” (Mckay). This puts the speaker right …show more content…

He primarily uses it when the oppressed are being actively attacked, which is seen in the opening lines, “If we must die, let it not be like hogs/Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, /While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, /Making their mock at our accused lot” (McKay). The combination of these devices creates contrast between the oppressed and the oppressors. The simile emulates how innocent and helpless the oppressed group is by comparing them to pigs that have been trapped within their own home. The simile further emphasizes their weakness by simply being the weaker device. Metaphors are seen as a stronger device, and it is used to compare the oppressors to dogs that have gone mad with hunger. If the imagery alone did not make the oppressors seem more powerful, the use of these two devices against each other certainly does. However, the author strengthens the resolve of the oppressed by calling them to action throughout the poem until the very last line, which states, “Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, /Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!” (McKay). In this line, the author takes away the power of the oppressors by not only calling them cowardly, but by only giving them a brief mention within the simile. It also offers the comparison of the maddened dogs against men. While humans are usually more powerful than dogs, a pack of hunger-crazed dogs

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In “Reapers” Toomer utilizes juxtaposition and concrete diction to create visual imagery that conveys the lack of respect for black lives during the slavery era. In the second half of the poem, Toomer uses concrete diction to describe the blades of a mower killing a field mouse, noting the mouse “squealing” as it “bleeds” and writing “I see the blade, / Blood-stained, continue cutting weeds and shade” (lines 6-8). This use of concrete diction creates a visual image of a suffering mouse, dying from its wounds as the blade of the machine that killed it continues on its set path. This image is juxtaposed with the first half of the poem which features the image of men of colour using their scythes as they reap the field, creating the visual image that like the mouse, these men could be killed and the steel of the blades would not pause for a moment after taking their lives (Toomer lines 1-4). Thus, Toomer’s use of visual imagery successfully communicates the lack of respect for black lives in the reaping fields during the era of slavery.

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For this quote which shows such a huge meaning of imagery “we are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth”. The meaning for this quote is when the most hurtful moments of our life is when we're weaker than ever. The second quote is “shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot.”. This quote means that once the people are hurt there's no going back and they have to watch for each other back. The rhetorical strategy, imagery, establish to show that what life has for us and that there's always way to conquer them.

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By comparing the atrocities of the Holocaust to something that the reader can relate to or has experienced, similes can help create a deeper emotional connection and understanding of the events. The poem, Homesick, talks about the author returning home. The author states, “Here the weak die fast as a feather” (2). Feathers are easy to destroy and pull apart, those who were weak during the Holocaust were easy to get rid of and destroy. In the novel, Night, by Elie Wiesel, as the wind blows violently, Elie’s block was marching, he states “I was putting one foot in front of the other, like a machine” (85).

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The Harlem Renaissance illustrated the explosion of a new intellectual and artistic vitality among the African American culture in the 1920s. This movement included the beginning of the gradual assimilation of African Americans into a polarized American society among whites. In The Lynching and The Harlem Dancer, Harlem Renaissance poet, Claude McKay, expresses the consequences of African Americans as they attempt to integrate into every day life (diverse syntax). McKay’s poems give two similar examples of discriminatory and obscene actions that a lynching victim and a club dancer must endure. Despite the encouraging atmosphere of the cultural movement, the poet presents the two sonnets in a similar matter to convey the degradation of human

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For example, the poet uses a personification towards the poem saying to keep it “as a warm coat”, displaying the poet's desire to comfort and bring a warm feeling to the reader. The poet also uses a simile to express the poet’s want to protect the reader and keep them “tucked away like a cabin or hogan in dense trees” to protect them from any worldly dangers that might threaten to harm them. This simile presents the poet’s desire to act as a haven for the reader, and their desire to give the reader all their love because they can’t give any materialistic things. Throughout the poem, the poet presents the reader with lots of imagery to convey images of warm, protected, and comforting feelings. An example of this imagery is the poet welcoming the reader in with “a pot full of yellow corn”, giving the reader an image of coming in from the cold to be embraced with a warm comforting

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Another detail is in Common Dust where it states “Will mankind lie apart, when life has settled back again the same as from the start?” This quote shows that all mankind after their death will be the same dust. This relates to the claim because people who discriminate will see that everyone is the same so there is no point in discriminating as everyone is the same in the end, dust. In conclusion, the poets of the Harlem Renaissance vocalized their work by showing different ways to help people understand discrimination and fight against

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The last literary element that McKay uses its irony. "And she sinks into my throat hervtiger's teeth, stealing my breath of life... I love this cultured hell that test my youth." ( Line 2-4) it is ironic how much I can love something that constantly trys to kill and destroy him. "I stand

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In line at the narrator's fear has a metaphor and a simile in line 11. The poem is full of similes and metaphors. For example, line 3-4 are similes also lines, 9-11, 24-26, 29-30, line 32, and line 32-34. The poem in line 4-6 includes metaphors.

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Another simile is “He followed like a bloodhound on their track” (Stanza 12, Line 2). Having similes and metaphors like those play an important role as they’re an essential devices in poetry to create an interest in the text as without them poetry would be bland.

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In the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, there are many uses of literary devices. Orwell uses similes as key component throughout the story. Similes help the reader understand the tone and grasp what is actually occurring at a certain moment. For example, when the elephant took somebody`s life in the story, Orwell states,“The friction of the great beast's foot had stripped the skin from his back as neatly as one skins a rabbit” (Orwell 2). This simile gives the reader the impression that the elephant took the skin off the man's body as easy and clean as cutting the skin off of a little rabbit.

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In conclusion, the Harlem Renaissance was the first self-conscious literary and artistic movement in African American history. Claude McKay's "If We Must Die" and Helene Johnson's " Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem" both highlight dignity and racial pride. The literature of the Harlem Renaissance were acclaimed to a fierce racial conscious and racial pride animated by all the literature. Poetry as one of the cultural form and expression to subvert racial

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He is urging his cronies to not become weak, comparing them to “hogs hunted and penned in an inglorious spot”, but to battle against those attacking them. Which are the whites, who appear to be “making their mock at our accursed lot?” McKay understands that the battle for equality will be a challenging commission, but he contends blacks to play a part in the battle: "O Kinsmen!

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The theaters in Harlem flourished due to the freeing of black writers and actors. The Harlem Renaissance writing contained a strong element of protest like Cluade McKays poem " If We Must Die" (Foner 798). This poem was in response to the black riots in 1919 by "affirming that blacks would no longer allow themselves to be murdered defenselessly by whites" (Foner 798).

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Claude McKay communicates his desire for racial equality in his poem “If We Must Die” through his use of figurative language, repetition, allusions, and imagery. McKay uses figurative language to convey his message of racial equality in “If We Must Die” through metaphors and similes. From the first line McKay starts off

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The use of personification portrays the way Owen sees this scene and how the image he is painting for the readers is that these men are being herded like a bunch of animals. This quote also suggests that, as animals they have no sense of understanding they just do as their owner tells them so, much like the army. This juxtaposition verse ‘demented choirs of wailing shells;’ is a metaphor which suggest pain and heartache and how that can be portrayed by sounds rather than movements. Often in literature alliteration is used to create a rhythm and tone in a poem, in this poem alliteration “rifles' rapid rattle" creates a cynical tone portraying Owens idea of being dehumanized and fear. Allegories is rhetorical device which hidden meanings through symbolic figures and actions.

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