Harlem Renaissance
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 and most particularly on two poets of the period: Claude McKay and James Weldon Johnson.
One of the pioneers of the Harlem Renaissance Movement was the poet Claude McKay. McKay was born in Jamaica and spent much of his early life there. His parents were prosperous farmers with landed property and McKay lived a life of relative ease. It was only upon mving to the States in 1912; McKay encountered intense public discrimination against blacks. The segregation that was so much a part of the civil milieu put Claude McKay off the “machine-like existence” that he transferred to Kansas State University. During his life here he was inspired to produce some of the seminal works typifying the Harlem Renaissance.
The Essay on The Harlem Renaissance Authors
... surprises of its Jazz” (Worth 39). McKay and other poets of the Harlem Renaissance introduced ghetto speech and rhythms of jazz ... activated the renaissance in literature, Harlem served as an inspiration for their work. Claude McKay was heavily influenced by Harlem. He said ... New Negro Movement” and was largely rooted in literature. The heart of this creativity all began in Harlem, New York, ...
McKay’s literary heritage spanned a generation where he produced stories of the peace of peasant life in Jamaica, the travails of the honest black worker in America and a rage against the American white authorities. 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, n.d.).
James Weldon Johnson descries the Harlem Renaissance Movement as the “flowering of Negro literature”. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Johnson was no stranger to the inherent racial bias that was the lot in life of an African American born in 1920’s America. Weldon is popularly held to be the Godfather of the movement; his aesthetic depth is often held to be the driving force behind the cohesion of the Harlem Movement; his works “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man” and “God’s Trombones” brought to black literature fresh criteria of realism and artistry. According to Robert A. Bone, Johnson was “the only true artist among the early Negro novelists” who managed to “subordinate racial protest to artistic considerations” (Beavers, 2000).
Johnson was a multifaceted personality. While some writers concentrated on only the literary aspect of the Black movement, Johnson expanded his study to black theatre, music art and poetry; that represented the innumerable facets of African culture and community. Johnson was the Head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and fought for removal of various obstacles (political, legal, and social) that encroached upon civil rights of Black people (Beavers, 2000).
Both poets embodied the principle of “double consciousness” that was so vital to the survival of the Black man in 1920’s America. In the poem “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay, the author presents a vision of the African American through the eyes of the racist White: “If we must die, let it not be like hogs/ Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,” “making their mock at our accursed lot” clearly demonstrate the white people’s attitude to the Black nation. The blacks are a disdained and “accursed lot”. Their continuous struggle against the bias and racism they endure in daily life to have a life little better than ‘dogs”. McKay says, “What though before us lies the open grave?”, a feeling of doom and sheer hopelessness seems to embody this line: McKay brilliantly proves the humiliating attitude of the world towards the Black nation
The Essay on The Man after God’s Own Heart
David, King of Jews, possessed every weakness and sin that “a man of blood” is capable and yet God still showered and bestowed him with abundant blessings. He was the adulterer of Bathsheba whom he forced to go with him to bed and convinced to lie about her pregnancy to her husband Uriah. He was the murderer of his friend Uriah whom he sent in front of the battlefield if only to own Bathsheba. He ...
McKay’s poem We Must Die was set against the backdrop of the racial riots that took place in major cities of the US in 1919. 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 back!”
In “The Prodigal Son”, James Weldon Johnson typifies “God” as the father and his “Son” embodies the young men of every generation. This personification of one image into two is that of power and love of God who would accept anyone into His realm of faith, hope, and love:
“But Jesus spoke in a parable, and he said:
A certain man had two sons.
Jesus didn’t give this man a name,
But his name is God Almighty.
And Jesus didn’t call these sons by name,
But every young man,
Everywhere,
Is one of these two sons”
The two poems outline the existing conflicts between the Black and White consciousness and how the need for this conflict is not as essential as it is unnatural. “The Prodigal Son” touches upon the theme of God’s all-embracing power, love, and all-forgiveness. Johnson shows how the seven deadly sins, and human lust, for power of carnal gratification is destructive. A moral and physical parable where Johnson shows that the vice is an all-corruptive force is the “City of Babylon”. In both poems, man is shown to be on a rampage, espousing vice and sin and destroying all in his path. God, on the contrary, is always helpful and wants to indicate the right way leading to salvation, eternal calm, and happiness.
The Essay on Mother To Son Works Young Poem
The short story Thank You, Maam and the poem Mother to Son, both by Langston Hughes are similar yet differ in many ways. In the following paragraphs I will explain the similarities and the differences. Besides being written by the same author the two literary works are a like in the sense that they are both advice to young people. An example from Mother to Son is So boy dont you turn back, dont ...
Thus, one should repent his/her sins and come to the Almighty Father:
“Young man, come away from Babylon,
That hell-border city of Babylon.
Leave the dancing and gambling of Babylon,
The wine and whiskey of Babylon,
The hot-mouthed women of Babylon;
Fall down on your knees,
And say in your heart:
I will arise and go to my Father.”
References
Beavers, H. (2000, February).
James Weldon Johnson’s life and career. Modern American Poetry. Retrieved from http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/johnson/life.htm
Claude McKay. Biography. (n. d.).
Poetry Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/claude-mckay
Sayre, H. M. (2011).
Humanities Culture, Continuity and Change. Vol. 2. Boston: Pearson College Div., 2011
