Literary Analysis Essay on "America" and "if We Must Die"

The essay will argue the comparison of two poems by Claude McKay, "America" and "If we must die." Claude tries to use the poems to balance the ideas of loving and hating the United States of America because she explores the right parts of the country, including the strength and vigor (McKay). "If We Must Die" is a poem of political resistance calling for the oppressed people to resist their oppressions using manners and violence bravely, if need be, even if they have to die during the struggle.

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The "America" is a poem by Claude McKay where he describes all sorts of the suffering he is undergoing in the country because of his skin color, in the poem, Claude has used words that are of much pain to express all that he is undergoing in the country, but despite all the oppression he is experiencing still he declares his love for the country (McKay). Claude describes America as "hell" where the black skin is not seen as human beings but as animals and treated like animals.

The organization structure of the poem is such that it is in sonnet form, with 14 lines and an ABABABABABABCC rhyme scheme. McKay used the sonnet form and structure to suggest his love for the country since it was historically associated with love. The love is shown further in the poem, where McKay concludes that America is a powerful force even with the brutal, ugly, and challenging side (McKay).

The characters in the poem include the narrator, who is McKay. He begins by stating the bad things about America but quickly changes to the way he loves it. He shows that he understands that America is a country with the quality that inspires both strength and passion, even when there are other areas that tend to be opposite (McKay). This way, McKay makes the poem a critique and a love letter.

The tone of the poem is humorous, mainly when he describes that even though America steals his breath of life, he will still confess that he loves the cultured hell that tests his youth. The style that McKay uses includes oxymorons, where he describes America as "cultured hell" to mean that even though it is difficult to live there because of serious political problems, there are also elements that he loves.

Another style that McKay uses is pronouns to denote a change. An example is such that at the beginning of the poem, McKay tends to use passive sentences that make the country America be known as she and represent the active force and also show how the world is beating the poet down (McKay). However, along the lines, McKay eventually feels comfortable and moves to use the pronoun "I" to show how he manages to reverse the notion and find his feet within the world and America, mainly. McKay personifies America as being a woman in the beginning by the use of "she" hence bringing the sense of femininity and allowing the contrast when he uses the pronoun "I" later.

Through the poem, Claude still can fight back the oppression from the racists and not ready to give, he inspires those undergoing through the oppression to fight back and defeat the oppressors. Claude discusses the inequality that some of the citizens in America experience in the 20th century, something that should not be happening at that time (McKay).

Even then, some of the whites are oppressed in their homeland country, something that should not be happening, Claude expresses both the positive and negative experiences of the US in his poem being a black in the country makes him undergo all sorts of suffering, and he is surprised that even some whites undergo what is going in the US, he inspires the oppressed to come out from the slumber and fight for their freedom and rights without fear because they will win (McKay).

"America" tends to regulate the number of immigrants moving to America. Historically, in the early 1920s, immigrants were subjected to harsh treatment. For that reason, the treatments tampered with the American dream (McKay). Ideally, people protested for civil liberties. The argument in "America" is that it has its good and bad sides, as seen in how the speaker states about the horrible daily moments but yet loves it.

"If We Must Die" is a Shakespearean sonnet poem also written by the Jamaican author who stayed in America, Claude McKay, in the year 1919 (McKay). The poem is all about the political resistance in the US, Claude writes to the oppressed in-country to resist their oppressors, they should resist violently and bravely even if it means to die but let them die for their rights, Claude encourages the oppressed not to give up on the oppressors any soon until they win the war. Claude calls for the blacks and the whites to resist the racism in the country against the blacks.

Claude McKay states that if the blacks have to die, they need not die like pigs who have been hunted and trapped in some dishonorable place. They have to die in honor so that they will have sacrificed their blood for nothing (McKay). In that way, the bad people that they rebel against will have to honor them despite their death. The organization of the poem is such that the speaker generally confronts oppression and goes ahead to say what the oppressed people need to do so that they can gain freedom even when the violent oppressors have cornered them.

The structure of the poem is also a sonnet as it expresses the argument that acts of violence, suicide, and resistance are the only options for the oppressed groups because it is the only way they will be able to reclaim their dignity and freedom (McKay). The speaker addresses the oppressed by saying that they are surrounded by monsters and mad hungry dogs ready to blow a thousand blows upon them. The tone of the poem is angry as the speaker seeks to tell people that they need to resist the oppression.

The style that McKay uses includes metaphors such as when he refers to the oppressors as monsters. The use of such a metaphor is to show that the speaker is talking about a minority community that has been threatened by violence from a more powerful group. The speaker also uses similes such as when he states that the oppressed people are like hogs (farmyard animals that get slaughtered to obtain pork or bacon). This way, McKay suggests how people have been treated with a lack of basic freedoms that they need to live as true humans.

The poem does not only encourage the resistance on the anti-blacks in the country but also to any other oppression that might exist in the country, the poem is all about the inspiration of the oppressed to come out from sleep and to fight for their freedom and rights in their country. Claude views the whites as the racist in their country and does not consider blacks as human beings, the politicians who are the oppressors to their citizens are on watch, and Claude inspires the oppressed to come out and fight for their freedom and rights in the own country.

Works Cited

McKay, Claude. Harlem Shadows: The Poems of Claude McKay. Harcourt, Brace, 1922.

McKay, Claude. Selected Poems of Claude McKay. Bookman Associates, 1953.

McKay, Claude. "If we must die." The Liberator 2.6 (1919): 1.