Claude Mckay

Searching for Identity: Claude McKay

En 340
Imagists and Harlem Renaissance
Presented to Dr. Brooks

Written by Chuck Trabaris

While Claude McKay was writing around the time of the Harlem renaissance there was a staunch opposition to him and his ideas. A lot of these criticisms had a voice in the Negro Press which was a conservative newspaper, at the time urging black people to assimilate their culture and beliefs with white people. Claude McKay is widely criticized by the rising black middle class as well as some other leaders in the African American community as depicting the worst aspects of Harlem (Perry30). Similarly, Claude McKay is accused of selling out his race through his use of imagery to show the naturalistic black man as a savage in society. Through language, rhyme and other things McKay grants a beautiful twist to some of the more unpleasant aspects to Harlem (perry 31). In reality through his description of black men and women he is actually attempting to provide African American men and women a sense of identity, poise, and resilience. The pieces selected offer each their own view but there is a sense of three things identity, culture, and vitality.

One of his more captivating poems, If We Must Die provides a sense of a common ground where everyone in the black community can relate to. It is only proper to start with this poem being that it is one of his most famous works. Black people were not slaves but they were still getting lynched by mobs and police alike. There were strict rules enforced to keep the races separate and the African American community oppressed. This poem appeals to the black community to become unified and strong. The poem is certainly rebellious and definitely hits a nerve crying out to the black community to stop letting this injustice happen. “Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying but fighting back!” In this first quote he has addressed how black people were developed to feel inferior by white people during that time through the subtle first two words, “Like men.” McKay is really trying to get that fight back within the black community by appealing to first their human side. McKay is trying to remind African Americans that they are human and are worthy of their inalienable rights. McKay is really saying to the black community to band together and unite to ward off the “cowardly pack” meaning white people. McKay through the use of the last line in poem is trying to breathe life back into the black community. He is reminding them they are men and that if the community stands strong then white people would be less inclined to go around lynching their fellow man. People who are united can demand redress and that the dieing must end here. This brings back the point of safety in numbers type of idea.

“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 us through dead!” This brings back an idea of before the Civil war and John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. This event received nation wide recognition even though all of those slaves died, their deaths still meant something. After the raid on Harper’s Ferry people started to ask themselves if slavery was right and events were set in motion. Even if everyone dies in the process of fighting back this is saying that something is wrong when a group lashes out. McKay is literally saying the black community is going to experience lynching anyway; so fight back against this oppression and at least then your blood means something if there is a massacre. Indirectly in this line there is a reference to the Boston massacre which is a piece of history where people stood together and seven people died but they were shots heard around the world and spurned on the revolution. McKay is really trying to appeal to the black community to unify at least and this is of course over shadowed by his larger goal of a unified African American community. This idea of unity needs a strong sense of identity and something that can’t happen is the assimilation of the Black community with the white community. Through the poem McKay is preaching for the Negro community to not assimilate and instead stand strong.

The frustration McKay must be feeling just leaps off the page as if to hit the reader right in the face. “O kinsman! We must meet the common foe! Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, and for their thousand blows deal one death blow!” McKay makes it sound like all it is going to take is one big blow and the violence will be over if the African American community is united. He assumes through dealing with the implied notion that white people are really cowards who only pick on the weak to make themselves feel better. This is a vision that sticks with Claude when writing this poem. However, it is easy to see why the message is so inspiring because it is saying to the Black communities we need to aggregate and assimilate.

Outcast is a poem which brings the black community back to Africa as a source of identity. “For the dim regions whence my fathers came my spirit bondagd by the body longs, Words felt, but never heard, my lips would frame;” McKay is using “Dim regions whence my fathers,” to provide that basic appeal that the black community is all from the same place bringing about that idea of a unified African American community even more so. In the second part of the quote, “My spirit, bondaged by the body, longs,” he is saying that African American community was all once a part of s single continent or heritage. Unfortunately, there is a conflict within the black community because physically they can no longer go back to Africa because so much time had past. Africa lived in on though through the community’s soul’s eyes. The use of spirit in the beginning also suggests that he likes the idea of having a heritage and through his own spirit he has found his own heritage. Therefore the black community has to find their own heritage through their spirits to truly connect with their heritage or possibly find a collective spirit. This is again coming back to that idea of unity.
Through the use of “soul” in the fourth line reaffirms the conviction that spirit and heritage are some how connected. “My soul would sing forgotten jungle songs, I would go back to darkness and to peace, but the great western word holds me in fee.” These three lines definitely relate to the three before it especially when talking about how the soul sings jungle songs and how the character in the poem would go back but can’t because the western world still owns him in a way. There is definitely sadness in the voice of these three lines at least especially when talking about how the western world still kind of owns him. The very next line only furthers this sadness, “And I may never hope for full release.” There is that definite despair where he knows that he most likely will never be let go. The key word in the quote is “never hope” just meaning to not even try and in the way the quote is phrased the sentence suggests that this man is truly a prisoner on the western world. Consequently, the only way to connect to his heritage is possibly through his soul hence why it is singing jungle songs. There is the issue of how the character feels not being able to go back and there is this idea of unity through the spirit with others that reminds him of his heritage.

Through losing this ability to go back to his place of birth or where his ancestors came from the character feels empty, “While to its alien gods I bend my knee. Something in me is lost, forever lost, some vital thing has gone out of my heart, and I must walk the way of life a ghost.” The character definitely feels empty like he has lost a part of himself. Which is explored even more by the line, “and I must walk the way of life a ghost.” Here McKay is talking about how empty the character is because he gave up everything that made him unique and because of this he walks around like a ghost. Meaning that the character has no ties, and no loyalties, to hold him to anyone place. McKay was talking about himself here at one point. Claude left Jamaica which was home to his family in 1912 and after staying in the United States for a little over seven years he bounced around a lot staying with all sorts of friends and benefactors. By placing this set of lines underneath the other ones which were talking about heritage soul, and spirit. The line, “while to its alien gods, I bend my knee,” is really showing assimilation in progress and afterwards the character feels like he has lost a part of himself. McKay is warning of the dangers of assimilation possibly trying to help explain the difference between aggregation and segregation. McKay is saying if African Americans conform with the rest of America something vital will be lost. This is a struggling issue because a lot of the African American community’s are preaching integration and making America one big culture if that happens though then the black community’s identity is at risk. McKay is using his most delicate form of speech here to promote nonconformity among blacks.

The Negro Press felt that Claude McKay was not making Harlem sound as great as it was by producing two books, Banjo and Home to Harlem and using some of his poems to depict the sleaziness of Harlem. This criticism is very superficial and does not do justice at all to his work. Through this work he really began to show a lot of the culture night life in Harlem and it shows how the African Americans adapted quite well to their new lives. The Harlem Dancer depicted some young men out on the town with prostitutes watching an entertainer who is half naked. At a superficial glance such as this the critics are somewhat right. However, this poem celebrates the talents and beauty of African Americans. The word choice and the way it is written is what is really important in this poem. “And watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway; her voice was like the sound of blended flutes.” He compares her voice to flutes which is very is a very beautifully sounding instrument which is dainty, and very harmonious. Then Claude McKay combines her voice, flutes, and “Black players upon a picnic day.” Indirectly he is combining her voice and a picnic day by equating them to the flutes earlier on the stanza. There is just this perfect image and how she sounds, not at all sleazy and she really radiates beauty. McKay is of course celebrating that image of blackness through a beautiful black woman. “Her perfect, half clothed body sway;” is not a creepy or vulgar image and the language used for this portion of the line is very flattering and blunt. “Perfect” is a beautifully blunt word giving off the image of flawlessness. Brilliantly, McKay uses the word “Sway” to describe the dance the woman is doing and “Sway” is very suggestive of a slow rhythmic beautiful dance flowing in time with the music. This dance is almost mesmerizing with how well the music, dance, and singing are combined. “Devouring her shape with eager, passionate gaze;” Claude McKay is really showing a swanky place that is possibly an underground night club during prohibition. This quote deserves mention because of one little detail that was put into it, “The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls.” The kids are drinking wine not beer or hard liquor suggesting the kids have quite a bit of money and it also gives them more of a cultured and refinement look to them as well. In reading this poem there is so much beautiful language it is almost impossible to see how Harlem can look bad at all from it.

Next, the rhyming scheme in the poem needs to be mentioned because the one foul word in the poem that suggests anything less than grace is “prostitutes.” This is an uglier word in the poem that has the potential to make Harlem seem more like a slum. Yet, it is the way that this word is rhymed making it sound less abrasive and unsightly. “Applauding youths laugh with young prostitutes and watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway; her voice was like the sound of blended flutes” McKay ever so delicately rhymes “prostitutes” which isn’t the most pretty of words and rhymes it with “flutes.” McKay is making this word okay by rhyming it with something that is known for its beauty. Consequently, since he had a rhyme scheme with the word a great deal of emphasis is not placed on it. The whole poem rhymes all the way connecting every last word making this strip show acceptable. Due to the rhyming and word choices there is more of a playful note which makes this possibly sleazy place sound really classy.

Through careful words and rhyme schemes Claude McKay was able to write some fantastic poetry that conveyed a great deal of culture, unity, and vitality. He warns people of the dangers of the black race assimilating in a couple of his poems. He also has the solution for facing off against injustice. This a very narrowed study on part of Claude McKay’s poetry but he was really a free thinker who was independent and despite many criticisms which were unwarranted by the Negro Press. McKay did very well for himself as a writer and traveler but there is a definite over looking presence involved in most of his writing and the reader has to look for the hidden meaning.

Poems quoted:

OUTCAST

For the dim regions whence my fathers came
My spirit, bondage by body, longs.
Words felt, but never heard, my lips would frame;
My soul would sing forgotten jungle songs.
I would go back to darkness and to peace,
But the great western world holds me in fee,
And I may never hope for full release
While to its alien gods I bend my knee.
Something in me is lost, foreverlost,
Some vital thing has gone out of my heart,
And I must walk the way of life a ghost
Among the sons of earth, a thing apart;
For I was born, far from my native clime,
Under the white man’s menace, out of time

THE HARLEM DANCER

Applauding youths laughed with young prostitutes
And watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway;
Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes
Blown by black players upon a picnic day.
She sang and danced on gracefully calm,
The light gauze hanging loose about her form;
To me she seemed proudly-swaying palm
Grown lovelier for passing through a storm.
Upon her swarthy neck black shiny curls
Luxuriant fell; and tossing coins in praise,
The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls,
Devoured her shape with eager, passionate gaze;
But looking at her falsely-smiling face,
I knew her self was not in that strange place.

If WE MUST DIE

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 accursed lot.
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 us though dead!
O kinsmen we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

Works Cited

Sherman, Joan ED. Dover Thrift Editions Claude McKay Selected Poems. New York: Dover Publications Inc.1999.

Perry, Margaret. Silence to the Drums A survey of the Literature of the Harlem Renaissance. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1976.