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If We Must Die Claude Mckay Analysis

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Poetry as Images Essay “You are men who in your lives fought for life and left the vivid air signed with your honor.” - Ronald Reagan commemorating the 40th anniversary of D-day. Poems are often used to help people gain a greater understanding of the feeling of individuals in signature moments of their lives. Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die” captures the desire to deal a blow to the enemy no matter the cost. The message of this poem cannot be described better when applying this poem to explain the American public and the American soldiers’ attitude to deliver a death blow to Hitler's Nazis on June 6, 1944. McKay was an immigrant to America from Jamaica in 1912. Throughout his life, in Jamaica and in America, he dealt with racism from all around …show more content…

The Germans felt invincible. In McKay’s words “Making their mock at our accursèd lot,” perfectly illustrates the Germans acts after forcing Allies off the mainland of Europe. The Germans began a victory parade of their soldiers through key French landmarks in Paris to show the French people how badly they lost, which can be seen in the middle photo. The bottom photo is showing a reenacted D-day beach scene of Allied Forces dying to try to bring an end to the Nazis evil grip on Europe and end the suffering of millions. The D-day soldiers knew not everyone was going to survive. They must have felt close to the same as the words of McKay, “If we must die, O let us nobly die, …show more content…

This is similar to McKay’s last few lines in his poem “Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!” This willingness to fight and die fearlessly shocked the Germans and caused them to have a new respect for their enemy. McKay predicted that this type of fighting back would cause this in his poem “then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!” That photo of the soldiers trying to run off the transport ship captures McKay’s message fighting in facing certain death to create an end long-standing

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