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If We Must Die Claude Mckay Analysis

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Song and Poem Comparison Inequalities in society have caused a tremendous amount of problems in history. These issues are still relevant in present day 2015. The musician, Prince, crafted a song, named "Baltimore", about his view on the Baltimore Riots which took place earlier this year. This piece is very similar to a poem named "If We Must Die" by Claude McKay, a well-respected Harlem Renaissance artist. The poem "If We Must Die" by Claude McKay and the song "Baltimore" by Prince share a similar theme of standing up for what you believe in by the use of allusion, metaphor, and simile. "If We Must Die" by Claude McKay, and "Baltimore" by Prince, both express that one should stand for their beliefs, through allusion. McKay alludes to one of the most famous speeches ever given, The Emancipation Proclamation. The allusion to Abraham Lincoln's speech occurs when he says, "If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed in vain; then even the monsters we defy shall be constrained to honor …show more content…

McKay uses metaphor to describe the violent and aggressive actions of the whites. In line 3, McKay says, "While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot." (McKay). He is fed up with the way they're acting in the section that is specifically segregated for blacks. He wants the blacks to stand up for themselves. Prince's use of metaphor is of a shameful tone. In the song "Baltimore", Prince says, "Nobody got in nobody's way" (Prince). He is metaphorically speaking about the whites and blacks in society. Nobody is getting in each other's way because of fear of one another. In "If We Must Die", McKay metaphorically refers to the whites as "monsters" for the way they treat blacks. Metaphors were essential in getting the point across in both pieces, which is to stand up for what you believe

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The metaphoric language is used to compare the blacks and the whites trying to live

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Soldiers, not just in the Vietnam War, carried personal items that assisted them through a time of fighting and death. These personal items were attachments that allowed the men to hold onto something, even if it was small, to help them continue fighting. In the book, The Things They Carried, there are several characters that possess everyday nicknacks that bring them happiness in a time of sadness. These characters and what they held on to include: Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, who holds onto hope, Henry Dobbins holds on to love, and Norman Bowker holds on to superstition. Hope is one of the ultimate feelings that people, especially soldiers, hold onto during war.

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”(Griffin 48) This quote ties into the main idea of the novel by describing how black men feel when they are discriminated against and treated unfairly. Griffin explains that they do feel hurt when they are called those terrible

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It has been called America's "most martial poem”. (Maryland, My Maryland. (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2014) Due to its origin in support for the Confederacy it includes lyrics that refer to President Lincoln as a "tyrant," "despot," and "Vandal," and to the Union as "Northern scum," as well as referring to the phrase "sic semper," which was the slogan later shouted by Marylander John Wilkes Booth while assassinating Lincoln.

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He highlights his message to his audience by exampling a ship lost a see and whose sailors were dying of thirst. The only way they managed to survive was after they had listened to the advice of the skipper who told them to “cast down their bucket” into the sea and bring up the fresh water. This analogy exemplifies how blacks were also

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He says that the White think that African Americans want to be them and have their skin color and riches. But he portrays that they think wrong. He says in his appeal that the African Americans do not want to be their color because they know that they could not do the same harm as the whites did as of beating as they slowly die in the inside. He says that they have so much anger towards the white that the first thing that they would do is murder each and every one of them for the suffering that they bought on to their families of their kind. He would like to see them suffer the same way before they would ever become a white person.

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The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all White people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny (King pg. 162). Reading this, it can be mistaken for charged language, meant to stir emotions

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They use metaphors to help connect their own lives to the lives of others. Whether it is from literary works that they are reading or connecting to each other’s lives. This use is very effective because it helps us to know what is going in the student's lives by connecting with things and sayings that we can understand. Allusions are also a very effective in this piece because it connects the real-life problems that the students are going through with things that everyone can understand. An example of this is when the students compare their lives to the lives of Holocaust survivors.

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His uses of metaphors clarify and create a clear connection between his ideas and the audience. While explaining the convictions of man

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How has artwork transformed itself with the use of metaphors? With many different artwork pieces we have seen through museums or within our textbooks, most would include an underlying meaning. The underlying meaning of the artwork is depicted by the audience and how they would choose to interpret the artwork. For instance, in Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait piece with a thorn necklace and a dead hummingbird, it signifies certain objects to show her own characteristics. Aside from the hummingbird, which could have meant light transcendent or escape, there are also different animals and objects surrounding her in her artwork piece.

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Metaphors are an influential piece to the literary world due to, “the process of using symbols to know reality occurs”, stated by rhetoric Sonja Foss in Metaphoric Criticism. The significance of this, implies metaphors are “central to thought and to our knowledge and expectation of reality” (Foss 188). Although others may see metaphors as a difficult expression. Metaphors provide the ability to view a specific content and relate to connect with involvement, a physical connection to view the context with clarity. As so used in Alice Walker’s literary piece, In Search Of Our Mothers’ Gardens.

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Smith goes on in the fourth stanza to say this is the story of minorities that save themselves standing next to the addicts, exiles, and children of slaves. It is the broken people that are the heroes of this story. A shift is noticeable beginning in the fourth stanza because the poem changes from what the poet wants the movie to be to what elements the movie is prohibited to have. Danez Smith claims he does not want a “hmong sexy hot dude” to save the day with “a funny yet strong, commanding black girl buddy-cop” then uses Will Smith and Sofia Vergara as an example. The preceding lines go on to say there will be grandmas taking out Raptors while sitting on her porch and for once a movie will not obsess over violence, race, and status, only normal people doing amazing

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The reader can relate to both sides, and with the help of imagery based on the sense of feeling, it explains everything

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The metaphors found in the both the speeches are used to convey

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