The societal issues associated with gender, race and class play a significant role in the way members of a society live and organize themselves. Gender, class and race do not only organize different members into their respective groupings, but also create contexts for various family lives, through their contribution to the occurrence of unequal distribution of the available of social opportunities. Consequently, educators and other social scientists have given these issues increased attention over the recent decades. However, there have been claims that literature, especially poetry has not given such attention, despite in few instances. For instance, Paul Reuben claims that “Although the modernist poets do not explicitly concern themselves with gender, race, or class issues, there are exceptions to this statement.” This discussion focuses on two different poets, analyzing their indulgence into these issues as exceptions mentioned by Reuben.
“If We Must Die” by Claude McKay
Having been born in Jamaica, McKay later wrote this poem, “If We Must Die” to express his social and political concerns in the land of the whites (USA). He took his own perspective as a black Jamaican in the USA, to show the struggle between the existing races. According to the poet, the differences associated with gender, race and class should not make a basis for any form of discrimination, but rather platform to build equality.
For instance, he cries for noble death for everyone, unlike animals such as hogs. For example, in the first line of stanza one poem, he writes, “If we must die—let it not be like hogs, Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot.” Writing in 1919, McKay urged his black community to fight back against the violence and bloodshed which targeted the blacks in America.
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes,
Hughes wrote this poem while during his journey by train to Mexico, where he intended to pay a one year visit to his father. The poem gained major fame for its role in celebrating the voice of back Americans who did not only live under serious racial intolerance, but also major injustices in America. While passing across the Mississippi River, he remembered its pivotal role in slavery, which further fueled the injustices against black Americans.
For example, in the first line of stanza one, he writes that,” I’ve known rivers,” a line that shows his analogy of how much injustices and sufferings blacks have undergone in the hands of the white Americans. Hughes’ poem became the main voice of the apprised, and later became the unofficial laureate for the Harlem Renaissance.
As exceptions mentioned by Reuben, these poems, “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes have depicted to various degrees, the nature of issues associated with gender, race and class in America. In both poems, the poets wrote their arts at times manifested with major forms of racial intolerance, gender prejudice and class discrimination.
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