Oppression Only Makes One Stronger
The theme of oppression is very evident in many African-American literary works. This topic is found so often in African-American literature because it is a subject that almost all African-Americans live with everyday for their entire lives. In the following works the theme that is focused on is, oppression only makes a person stronger, this theme seems too obvious in both cases. In Claude McKay's poem, America, he seems to focus on this issue of being oppressed by his country, but still has a love for the country at the same time. This theme is also evident in Countee Cullen's poem, Yet Do I Marvel. It talks about how God does so many things to people that put them in hard situations and even though these hardships are apparent, they only make the recipient of them stronger. I feel that both of these poems are meant to show that everyone has hard times and if you fight hard enough you will get through them and if they do not kill you they only make you stronger. The poem America by Claude McKay uses an oxymoron right in the first line of the poem to show how the person feels about the country. Although she feeds me the bread of bitterness (McKay 985) shows the reader that even though the country is feeding the p
This shows that the author must know that God has his reasons, but maybe his reasons are too complex for a human mind to understand. Even though the author seems to understand this he is still very curious as to what could possible make God do these bad things to so many people. The next two things are also key lines in this poem. And sinks into my throat her tigers tooth, Countee Cullen's poem Yet Do I Marvel plays with a very similar theme as America. This poem has a few very important lines. First the first line states I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind (Cullen 1305). This shows that the author feels that God's intentions are good, but then in line three asks, [why] The little buried mole continues blind (Cullen 1305). He is wondering if God has good intentions why does he do this to the poor mole. Then, in lines five and seven, he asks why God has forced Tantalus and Sisyphus to be tortured. He is thinking that if God has good intentions why would he have these two people are tortured which is such a cruel thing to do to them. The next couple of lines try to explain God's reasoning for doing these terrible things. This shows the reader that the poet is thinking about why God would make him black if he was suppose to be a poet. Why would God not just make him white? The only answer to this is that God knew that this person was strong enough to be black and overcome all the obstacles that he may meet along the way. I feel that the author may be implying that the reason God made him black and also made him a poet was because he felt someone needed to break the barrier and God must feel that the author was strong enough to do so. Inscrutable His ways are, and immune This shows that the person sees the size of the country and knows the power it has, but stands up to it. The person stays in the country takes all the
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Approximate Word count = 1256
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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