Harlem Renaissance: Claude Mckay And James Weldon Johnson
Abstract
The following paper focuses on the two poets of the Harlem Renaissance – Claude McKay and James Weldon Johnson. Their role and importance within the literary movement is identified, and the major themes of their poems, If We Must Die and The Prodigal Son are highlighted.
Harlem Renaissance Poets
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned unofficially form 1919 to the mid 1930’s. The “Negro Movement” as it was then called, heralded the zenith of modern African literature. Though it was centered around the Harlem, New York, many Afro-Caribbean writers were also inspired by this movement to produce epic pieces of literature. In this paper we concentrate on the great poetry that ebbed and flowed during this movement …show more content…
Perhaps most known are, McKay’s reflection on the so-called “double consciousness” of blacks which helped them survive in a society where racism was so embedded in the civil consciousness. McKay’s seminal works express his contempt for the rampant racism and bias blacks faced in society. Arthur D. Drayton, in his essay “Claude McKay’s Human Pity” says: “In seeing . . . the significance of the Negro for mankind as a whole, he is at once protesting as a Negro and uttering a cry for the race of mankind as a member of that race. His human pity was the foundation that made all this possible”. (Claude McKay, …show more content…
The media reporting was biased and the crackdown on Black was brutal. The image of “mad and hungry dogs” (line 3) is almost a double personification, where it embodies not lonely the doglike nature of the White people who brutalized the black inhabitants but also what they thought of those blacks: as dogs who could be subdued like animals. The line “If we must die” is repeated throughout the poem, where McKay shows that an ignominious end to the Back freedoms in America seems inevitable however he asks his people to unite and stand firm: “O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!” and show courage: “Though far outnumbered let us show us brave.” The poet urges the back nation not to back down: “Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, /Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting
The following paper focuses on the two poets of the Harlem Renaissance – Claude McKay and James Weldon Johnson. Their role and importance within the literary movement is identified, and the major themes of their poems, If We Must Die and The Prodigal Son are highlighted.
Harlem Renaissance Poets
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned unofficially form 1919 to the mid 1930’s. The “Negro Movement” as it was then called, heralded the zenith of modern African literature. Though it was centered around the Harlem, New York, many Afro-Caribbean writers were also inspired by this movement to produce epic pieces of literature. In this paper we concentrate on the great poetry that ebbed and flowed during this movement …show more content…
Perhaps most known are, McKay’s reflection on the so-called “double consciousness” of blacks which helped them survive in a society where racism was so embedded in the civil consciousness. McKay’s seminal works express his contempt for the rampant racism and bias blacks faced in society. Arthur D. Drayton, in his essay “Claude McKay’s Human Pity” says: “In seeing . . . the significance of the Negro for mankind as a whole, he is at once protesting as a Negro and uttering a cry for the race of mankind as a member of that race. His human pity was the foundation that made all this possible”. (Claude McKay, …show more content…
The media reporting was biased and the crackdown on Black was brutal. The image of “mad and hungry dogs” (line 3) is almost a double personification, where it embodies not lonely the doglike nature of the White people who brutalized the black inhabitants but also what they thought of those blacks: as dogs who could be subdued like animals. The line “If we must die” is repeated throughout the poem, where McKay shows that an ignominious end to the Back freedoms in America seems inevitable however he asks his people to unite and stand firm: “O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!” and show courage: “Though far outnumbered let us show us brave.” The poet urges the back nation not to back down: “Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, /Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting