THE ROARING 20S 1920 1929
ART AND CULTURE OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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proud.
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defiant.
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mocking.
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determined.
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Detailed explanation-1: -The speaker compares the oppressors to “mad and hungry dogs” that mock and molest the oppressed. The speaker calls for their kinsmen to fight against these dogs, even if it means death. The speaker of If We Must Die calls upon their kinsmen to avoid being like hogs, hunted and penned.
Detailed explanation-2: -The tone of “If We Must Die” conveys inspiration, while the tone of “Harlem” is frustration which indicates the difference between the poets’ attitudes toward racial oppression. In the first eight lines of “If We Must Die”, the speaker insists on dying nobly.
Detailed explanation-3: -Written in response to the “Red Summer, ” a period of lynchings and violence against blacks that swept the USA in 1919, McKay’s poem urges readers to be brave and fight back in the face of death.