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Paper 2 analysis of the poem if we must die by claude mckay
Analysis of if we must die by Claude McKay
Analysis of if we must die by Claude McKay
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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.
In the tantalizing novel, Night by Elie Wiesel, the author uses figurative to convey his thoughts and emotions. There are two cauldrons of soup left laying in the middle of the road with no one guarding them and the starving jews are looking at them. The author uses the metaphor, “ Two lambs with hundreds of wolves lying in wait for them.” ( Wiesel 59), to vividly describe this moment in time in the book. This is an accurate comparison of the two cauldrons of soup to two helpless sheep and the Jews to hungry wolves.
A child leaves in the morning to work endlessly until midnight. She arrives home with work-torn hands and tired eyes as she prepares for another day of weaving, spinning, sewing, braiding, and knitting. This image of a child having her life toiled away in a factory is one that Florence Kelley does not tolerate. In her speech for the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she opposes the unfair and immoral treatment of children in labor. Kelley applies figurative language and pathos in her speech in order to push women to encourage men to vote for strict child labor laws, and to convince women of the need for their suffrage.
Three examples of figurative language from Night by Elie Wiesel are similes, rhetorical questions and personifications. He used the simile “I was putting one foot in front of the other, like a machine” (85) to describe the time when he was running, with the SS officers behind him commanding him to quicken his pace. The similes shows how Wiesel feels inhuman, how he feels more like a machine than a person. No one thinks twice about machines, we use them until they’re broken, and then fix them up a little before they break again.
In the poem, Johnson’s use of inclusive words like “we”, “our” and “us”, fused with anaphoras in each stanza, allow him to address black Americans in the north and south. Johnson uses phrases like “Let us”, “Let our”, and“We have come”, “Keep us”, and “Lest our” to unify black America and build community and culture shattered by American racism and prejudice. Without a strong foundation, how could black America improve from its “Bitter”, “Stony”, “dark”, “weary”, and “gloomy” past? Johnson’s inclusive word choice forces a shared experience among black Americans, making the issues at hand a national issue and not exclusively a southern one; hence Black Americans had to work together to reach “the white gleam” of “victory”. Johnson’s appeals to black America are further extended in his pleas for strengthening faith and progress for black Americans as well;
“Figurative language can give a shape to the difficult and the painful. It can make visible and ‘felt’ that which is invisible and ‘unfeelable.’” -Mary Oliver. Mary Oliver says that figurative language can say something difficult or painful, and it is also something that is felt. In the stories “Here’s Herbie” by Mike Feder and The Pigman by Paul Zindel, the author uses figurative language to develop the reader’s point of view of how the character looks and how the characters are like.
“Women” by Louise Bogan Louise Bogan married her husband, Curt Alexander in 1916, and had a child a year later. In 1920, Curt Alexander died, causing Bogan to become a widow and left her with no reliable income and an adolescent to care for. After moving to New York City, later on, Bogan met other writers, this sparked her writing career. After writing multiple reviews for periodicals, she later wrote the poem “Women” (Louise Bogan). Throughout the course of this poem, Bogan uses metaphors, imagery, and the setting to show that women are seen as incapable of doing what men do.
The poet, Lascelles Abercrombie once said, “There is only one thing which can master the perplexed stuff of epic material into unity; and that is, an ability to see in particular human experience some significant symbolism of man 's general destiny.”. He talked about how powerful of a tool symbolism is and how it is the only thing that can truly define a highly complex ‘destiny’ or series of events. Symbolism is something that is found throughout Harper Lee’s book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee shows the reader that racism is a product of society,she portrays the matter through her symbolism of the mad dog, the birds and the bugs.
From the invention of a new courage, to a dress defining inequality, to criticizing humans for the lack of understanding others perspective, Lee usage of metaphors dig deeper into the roots of human logic. Humans tend to have a habit of forgetting or dismissing the little things learnt. The more observation and more effort put into attempting to remember and applying throughout daily life, the larger the growth in overcoming our flaws. Of course, it’s near to impossible to fully overcome, but what’s life without the
The poem I, Too, Sing America written by Langston Hughes shortly after World War II in 1945, is a lyrical poem about the neglected voices in America as a response to the Poem “I hear America singing.” During this time, African Americans were oppressed in society and they did not have equal rights to Caucasians. This poem expresses Langston Hughes hope for the future where black people are not oppressed when equality is achieved between races. This poem helps assert Langston Hughes’ ideas of racial pride, hope, and equality. Many black people fought in the war and after it ended, they still did not have equality, which caused questions of why they were not equal if they fought against another country.
In “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space”, Brent Staples explains the impact he has on other people just for being an African American man. Writing for an audience of black men who have experienced discrimination. With a wise, inoffensive voice, but somewhat of a neutral tone, the author uses figurative language, writing techniques and diction to explain his purpose of writing this essay to explain to his readers of his past experience of being a black man in public places and the effect it has caused in his life. Figurative language is seen throughout Staples’s essay. In the following quote ‘Her flight made me feel like an accomplice in tyranny” the author uses a simile (Staples 1).
Langston Hughes was an American poem born in the early nineteen hundreds, who became known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He published many poems that brought light to the life of people of color in the twentieth century. There are three poems that the speakers are used to portray three major themes of each poem. Racism, the American Dream, and Hopes are all the major themes that Hughes uses to highlight the average life of a person of color. Theme for English B,” “Harlem,” and “Let America Be America Again” were three of Hughes’s poems that was selected to underline the themes.
In the novel The Old Man and The Sea, written by Ernest Hemingway a credible author, the use of figurative language was not sparse. Figurative language enhances the story line and makes the book interesting and detailed. The most notable uses of figurative language were similes, metaphors, personification, idioms, and hyperboles. Similes are described as a comparison using like or as. We found many examples throughout the text.
This way of taking somebodies life occurred often in the South. Being in the Deep South was extremely dangerous and frightening for anyone with black colored skin, whites had such hatred and aggression. McKay’s poem reflects on American culture during the time by showing how people had
The poet compared the graves like a shipwreck that is the death will take the human go down and drowning to the underground like the dead bodies in the graves. The last line “as though we lived falling out of the skin into the soul.” is like the rotting of the dead bodies. The second stanza there is one Simile in this
