Claude McKay: Home to Harlem
Claude McKay was a born in 1890 in Jamaican. The novelist and poet waswell educated having studied at both Tuskegee University and the Universityof Kansas. As a major contributor to the Harlem Renaissance, McKay is bestremembered for his racially themed poetry with popular works such as thevolumes of poetry Spring in New Hampshire (1920) and Harlem Shadows (1922);and the novels Home to Harlem (1927), Banjo (1929), and Banana Bottom Prior to writing Home to Harlem, McKay lived abroad. In 1919 McKaymoved to Europe, where he became increasingly involved in the Communistmovement and saw Communism as an alternative to racism, poverty, andcolonialism. He was known to travel extensively and at one time or anotherlived for periods of time in the Soviet Union, France, Spain, and Morocco."For years McKay was involved in radical political activities, but hebecame increasingly disillusioned, and in 1944 he converted to RomanCatholicism." (The Columbia Encyclopedia) The Harlem Renaissance had many names. It was called the New Negromovement, the New Negro Renaissance, or the Negro Renaissance. The movementemerged around 1918 around the time World War I ended. The movement hit
ClaudeMcKay is pleading with both his people and the oppressive whites tounderstand each other and to try to form a pact of unity. Ray may be a self-portrait of the author himself since thebiographies are similar in nature. His burden has him constantly timid,worried and feeling isolated from the black community. As the author conveys early 20th century issues, the storyrelates one of the main themes associated to the Harlem renaissance. His mental isolation is derived from the fact that he was raisedand educated abroad. It seems that McKay, through thisfriendship, tried to relate the vitality of the black drifters or vagrantsof the urban societies in both America and Europe. There are few to no job opportunities for black men. Harlem inthose days was the cool place to be, yet the story still addresses indetail the overall alienation and continued frustration of the urbanAmerican blacks. The authorexpertly shows real life for the black men and women of the time. Jake is the type who can cope with hisproblems by simply following his own instincts. Harlem shows a typical 'have and have not' racial class system and thefact that the options are so limited for the have nots. This may have been a new concept during his time. McKay's characters are most likely a combination of the stereotypedand realistic black men from the time. Home to Harlem and other McKay books and poetryestablished him as a major influence in both American literary circles andthe Harlem Renaissance movement.
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