Essay on Usage of the Outsider Theme in Claude McKay's Poetry

McKay stressed the value of the common Negro and joined other Negro Renaissance writers in a rediscovery of Negro folk culture. For in his poetry, he best expressed the New Negro's determination to protect his human dignity, his cultural worth, and his right to a decent life. After working closely with Max Eastman, he traveled to Moscow in 1923 in sympathy with the Bolshevik Revolution and became a sort of national hero there. Claude McKay died in 1948.

“He became aware of the beauty of the great European cathedrals, especially the Catholic ones in Spain.” He later realized that he believed in God in the early 1930s. In his poem “Outcast” he refers to religion. It is first brought up in the beginning of the poem “My spirit bondaged by the body, longs”. He is referring back to his heritage and his beliefs that he is further questioning. In the article “Home At Last”, it states how Claude McKay became involved with the communist party, but later began to find the religious outlooks of Christianity that were beneficial and inspirational.It is stated that McKay made the decision to turn his political views into art that later turned into Christianity. Later on in the poem, on lines 7-8, he states “While to its alien gods I bend my knee”. In the analysis this poem in the article “Thematic Trends in Claude McKay’s Selected Poems of the Harlem Era”, it is stated under the topic of religion “The persona having been taken away from the shores of Africa is made to embrace alien gods in a foreign land.” This states how he was stuck in the memory of his heritage and felt imprisoned in a foreign land. A novel that Claude McKay wrote close to the end of the Harlem Renaissance was discovered and showed the influence Communism had on his writing. The manuscript was called “Amiable With Big Teeth”. According to News York Times, the manuscript was “A novel of

Alienation can be more hurtful than any physical harm. It renders feelings of isolation and loneliness. Estrangement by your community confuses your ego and sense of self and leaves you wondering, “where do I belong?” Alienation and its effects were appropriately personified in both the late Leanita McClain and fictional character Arnold Spirit Jr. from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.

Each author has used a different text type and therefore has used techniques unique to the text type they have chosen. As Outsider is a poem, the author, Cassidy Stagg, has taken advantage of the use of structure and figurative language. Like

Claude McKay’s poems reflect on American culture during a specific time in history, known as Harlem Renaissance. A time where racism was predominately a way of living for many, this was a beneficial time in history for African Americans. Bringing blacks together in a new movement that had not been present in America. Development in which blacks emphasized themselves by taking on their racial identity. It was a time period in which the black community helped each other to be able to express themselves as who they truly are, creating a true African American visual doing so

First, in Claude McKay’s “Outcast,” Claude McKay argues that the difficulty of being black is unceasing oppression by whites as seen through their inability to connect with their past roots. Claude McKay longs to

Diction plays a large role in in conveying deep meaning within the two poems. Both writers use figurative and emotional vocabulary throughout each line. In “I Too, Sing America”, Hughes begins the first line using a figurative metaphor, “I too am the darker brother / They send me to eat in the kitchen” (Hughes 1-2). When Hughes refers to the narrator as the darker brother, the metaphor is actually referring the the African American community, not just a singular person. The second metaphor in line 2 attributes to the social divide and mistreatment between whites and blacks. This method of writing is mirrored in McKay’s “America”, “Although she feeds me bread of bitterness / And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth” (McKay 1-2 ). The diction McKay chooses to use, urges readers to empathize a feeling of sorrow and animosity towards America. He does this by using words such “bitterness” and “sinks into my throat”.

I am that girl in the back of the room who will never be described as an outgoing individual. My presence does not come off as that of the most popular kid. I can walk into a room and no one will notice I am there. I was an average kid in high school: I got decent grades, watched the same shows as my peers, celebrated the same holidays, etc. I seemed to fit in on the outside that which makes me different was unnoticeable. Both Langston Hughes and I are different from our peers, we are considered outsiders. Hughes is considered an outsider because of his race. I was an outsider because of my legal status and lack of social security number. Hughes’ status as an outsider is made evident through his daily route to from school. My status as an outsider was evident through the process of applying for college.

Born in Jamaica, Claude McKay was introduced to a life of ______. Growing up, McKay was sent to live with his oldest brother, a teacher, so that he could be given the best education possible. McKay began to write poetry at the age of 10 under the influence of Walter Jekyll, an English man who soon became his mentor, and encouraged him to write dialect verse. Having heard about Booker T Washington, McKay enrolled himself at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He went in with the intention of studying agronomy; it was at this time he first encountered the harsh realities of racism in America. In 1919, the front pages of Washington newspaper were filled with cases of alleged sexual assaults, said to have been committed by African Americans. The white

McKay uses hopeful words and exclamation marks to rally his people to fight back for the cause. McKay used this tactic when he says, “We must meet the common foe!” (l. 9), to show that the oppressors are equal to them. This in turn encourages the African-Americans that they do have a chance to fight back. The emphasis with the exclamation points, and the encouraging words give the reader a sense of hope that the fight is possible. In the poem, exclamations serve the purpose of motivating the people to fight for freedom of oppression. While hopeful words encourage them that the cause is manageable and that they can change the future. An example of this is when McKay says, “even the monsters we defy/Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!” (l. 7-8). McKay shows that even the oppressors will have to honor them for dying nobilly with

Everyone is different in terms of appearance and life circumstances, so feeling like an outsider is bound to happen at least once during one’s life. In ‘Sonnet, With Bird’, the author felt like an outsider because of his race. “I am the only Indian in this country right now” (Alexie 214). He didn’t think that he fit in because of his skin color, and he is not alone in this feeling. People all over the world feel like outsiders because of how they look. Another thing that people can feel like an outsider because of is their life situation. Because of their economic class, the Kelvey children in ‘The Doll’s House’ felt like outsiders compared to the seemingly more well off children. “...the Kelveys were shunned by everybody” (Mansfield 203). Just because of an insignificant thing like social class, one can be made to feel like an outsider.

Claude McKay was a black man born in Jamaica, he choose literature very on in life and kept with it. He moved to the United States at age twenty three to study at Tuskegee Institute and was immediately shocked by the blatant racism prevalent in Charleston, South Carolina. He moved to New York and shortly after became co-editor of The Liberator, a famous abolitionist newspaper, he wrote some of his most revered poems while working there. He was part of the Harlem Renaissance a movement that was a reawakening of artistic and cultural talents of African American people in the United States and helped to reinvigorate their pride in being black.

In the poem ,“America”, Claude McKay uses figurative language and diction to create a dark tone, a powerful empowering tone, and an optimistic tone. The theme of double consciousness of African-Americans is supported in the poem and the poem itself also connects to the purpose of the Harlem Renaissance which was to fight back racial hate and stereotypes with black empowerment.

struggle of the Afro Americans. It is a dream which has not come true and will

The poem America by Claude McKay is on its surface a poem combining what America should be and what this country stands for, with what it actually is, and the attitude it projects amongst the people. Mckay uses the form of poetry to express how he, as a Jamaican immigrant, feels about America. He characterizes the bittersweet relationship between striving for the American dream, and being denied that dream due to racism. While the America we are meant to see is a beautiful land of opportunity, McKay see’s as an ugly, flawed, system that crushes the hopes and dreams of the African-American people.