McKay's early comparison of America to a tiger symbolizes the nation's inhuman violence and brutality, particularly towards its minority subjects and to cultural "outsiders." “America,” though not written in dialect, has an obvious voice. Not affiliated with Harvard College. Quick Tags. You may need to download version 2.0 now from the In addition, “America” by Claude McKay contains personification and symbolism. America (Claude McKay poem) study guide contains a biography of Claude McKay, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Analysis: Claude McKay is describing his feelings toward America. … Another way to prevent getting this page in the future is to use Privacy Pass. McKay’s poem “America” provides insight not only into his own thoughts on America and American racism, but also those of most blacks living in Harlem in the 1920s. Throughout the entire poem, McKay refers to the country of America as a “she”. First Quatrain: "Although she feeds" to "tests my youth!" 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. "America" and the Tradition of Female Personifications of AmericaGradeSaver "America (Claude McKay poem) Symbols, Allegory and Motifs". … But this conceit of America-as-beloved also allows McKay to subvert poetic conventions in productive and illuminating ways, like in his refusal to idealize his beloved and his suggestion that—unlike the traditional beloved immortalized in verse—America actually has an ominous end in sight. However, here the specificity of "tiger" also allows McKay to develop the irony even further, using an "exotic" foreign animal to portray "America's" central conceit is that of America as a "she," and with this personification McKay readily invites comparisons to the sonnet form's traditional figure of the female beloved. Like the similar comparisons to "mad and hungry dogs" and "monsters" in McKay's "If We Must Die," this metaphor pointedly reverses racist conceptions to suggest that it is in fact whites and white America that are animalistic and subhuman. America What was his life like? More About this Poet. America By Claude McKay About this Poet Claude McKay, born Festus Claudius McKay in Sunny Ville, Jamaica in 1889, was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, a prominent literary movement of the 1920s. "Although she feeds me bread of bitterness GradeSaver, The tiger's ability to evoke at once predatory violence, otherness, and the stripes of the American flag made it a favorite symbol of McKay's, and he exploits its poetic potential even more readily in his poem "Tiger," declaring that "The white man is a tiger at my throat, / Drinking my blood as my life ebbs away, / And muttering that his terrible striped coat / Is Freedom's and portends the Light of Day." McKay is not careful when describing the pitfalls of American society. This poem is about America and how she influenced the speaker greatly. McKay's poem is a 14 line "Shakespearean" sonnet about America—though we only know that from the title, as McKay never references America in the poem itself. Setting up the poem as a love poem thus enables McKay to "confess" his real love for America, as complex, contradictory, and qualified as that love is. In developing this conceit, McKay is ultimately able to use this relationship between speaker and beloved in order to represent allegorically some of the complexities and difficulties of the black experience in America.America (Claude McKay poem) study guide contains a biography of Claude McKay, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.Copyright © 1999 - 2020 GradeSaver LLC. Giving the inanimate landmass human-like characteristics is … Despite the difficulties that America shoves his way, he reluctantly loves his new home. His work ranged from vernacular verse celebrating peasant life in Jamaica to poems that protested racial and economic inequities.... Read Full Biography.

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