The Life and Times of Claude McKay Essay -- essays research papers

The life and Writings of Claude McKay Introduction     Every literary result can be defined by a group of savers. For the Harlem metempsychosis, which was an ludicrous eruption of creativity among Black Americans in all(a) fields of art, Claude McKay was the leader. Claude McKay was a major asset to the Harlem Renaissance with his contributions of such great pieces of typographys such as If We Must Die and The Lynching. McKay wrote in legion(predicate) different styles. His go away which vary from dialect verse celebrating peasant life in Jamaica, to activist poems challenging white authority in the United States, to philosophically would-be(prenominal) novels about the effort of dims to cope in western society (Claude McKay 1375) displays the astuteness of this great writer. The main ideals of this poet were to raise social issues and to inspire his people. McKay used his indite as an outlet for his feelings of distrust toward those who he believed oppressed his people. In many ways McKays writing affected his life, but in regular(a) more ways McKays life affected his writing. The writings of Claude McKay were forever changing throughout his life and caused him to be the most dynamic poet of the Harlem Renaissance. annalsClaude McKay was born in homophile(a) Ville Jamaica on September 15 in 1880 to Thomas Francis and Ann Elizabeth McKay (Ali 201). McKay grew up in a relatively prosperous family and had British schooling in the predominantly black small town of Sunny Ville. It was in his British schooling that McKay learned about traditional forms of writing such as sonnets. However, McKay learned an alternative education from his father who gave him his safe sense of African pride. Claude McKays father told him about his ancestry and Claude McKays grandfathers life as a slave (Masiello 244). From these lessons and his healthful black surroundings, McKay received African traditions as well as an clasp for the purity of bl ack hood (Ali 201). Also from McKays agnostic brother, who tutored him, McKay gained his rationalism attitude (Claude McKay 1375). McKay soon gained a distrust of white people when he moved to Kingston, at the age of nineteen. In 1911, upon reaching Kingston, McKay experienced credulity and racism unlike anything he had encountered in Sunny Ville. McKay got a trouble as a constable but soon grew tired of it receivable to his feeling that ... ...nd his people, even if he was poorly received. He did not write for monetary gains, he wrote to inspire and celebrate the grandeur of his people. His style changed black modern poetry. He is a poet, a novelist, an essayist and most of all a revolutionary. He served as the prototype of the poet for the Harlem Renaissance.Work CitedAli, Schavi Mali. Claude McKay. Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940. vol. 52. Ed.Trudier Harris. Detroit Gale Research Inc, 1987. 201-212.Claude McKay. BLACK LITERATURE CRITISISM, Ed. Draper , James. Detroit Gale Research Inc, 1992. 1375-1385.Hathaway, Heather. African American Literature. Ed.Andrews, William. rising York Oxford University, 1997. 489-490.Martin, Tony. African Fundamentalism. Massachusetts Majority Press, 1991. 8-9, 69-70, 84-87.Masiello, Dianne. Claude McKay. AFRICAN AMERICAN WRITERS. New York Macmillan publishing Company, 1991. 244-246.Maxwell, William. McKay on If We Must Die." Claude McKay. 1999 http//www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/mckay/mustdie.htm (10 March 2002).---. McKay Chronology. Claude McKay. 1999 http//www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/mckay/mustdie.htm (10 March 2002).