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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the speaker is malnourished and feels like he’s in hell
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young people should despise the conditions that provide them with challenges
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the speaker loves America, despite being treated with bitterness and oppression
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the speaker will leave America and find a place that is more accepting of him
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Detailed explanation-1: -It expresses the Jamaican-born McKay’s ambivalent feelings about the United States (his adopted country), acknowledging the nation’s vitality while criticizing its racism and violence. At the end of the poem, the speaker prophetically looks ahead to a time when this seemingly invincible country will fall to ruin.
Detailed explanation-2: -I love this cultured hell that tests my youth. The opening lines of America focus on the ‘bitterness’ which the country inspires. The daily moments which are horrible, the country being personified and feeding the poet ‘bread of bitterness’.
Detailed explanation-3: -America not only feeds her people of color bitterness but she sinks her teeth into their throat, “stealing my breath of life, ” and yet he is determined to fight against the oppression. He loves this cultured hell that tests his youth because ironically she builds him up in her attempt to break him down.
Detailed explanation-4: -’America’ by Claude McKay balances ideas of loving and hating the United States. McKay explores the good parts of the country, the strength and vigor it contains as well as the bad. Yet, he also comments on the ‘bitterness’, violence, and corruption the country is known for.