by: erica greco “ the lynching” by: claudemckay. background information born in jamaica on...
TRANSCRIPT
By: Erica Greco
“The Lynching”By: ClaudeMcKay
Background Information Born in Jamaica on
September 15 1889, the youngest of 11 children; died in may 22, 1948
Suffered from high blood pressure and heart disease
Abandoned his lifelong agnosticism and embraced Catholicism
Wrote such classics as Harlem Shadows, Harlem: Negro Metropolis, My Green Hills of Jamaica, Banana Bottom, and The Negroes in America
He is considered as the "foremost left-wing black intellectual of his age”
Influenced black authors including James Baldwin and Richard Wright.
The Lynching His spirit in smoke ascended to high
heaven.
His father, by the cruelest way of pain,
Had bidden him to his bosom once again;
The awful sin remained still unforgiven.
All night a bright and solitary star
(perchance the one that ever guided him,
Yet gave him up at last to fate's wild whim)
Hung pitifully o'er the swinging char.
Day dawned, and soon the mixed crowds came to view
The ghastly body swaying in the sun
The women thronged to look, but never a one
Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue;
And little lads, lynchers that were to be,
Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.
By: Claude McKay
Analysis:• Lynching is defined as
murder for supposed crime: to seize somebody believed to have committed a crime and put him or her to death immediately and without trial• The title of this work
speaks for itself, it tells of a story of a man who is lynched for a “awful sin” that of which is not named and ethnicity untold. Lynching was common in the 1920’s but most people were killed only because of their skin color
Factoids:
• Not only African Americas were lynched but white men were as well. Lynching was a tool that mobs (like the KKK) used for the persecution of blacks and most people in pursuit of integration rights were killed, making it a racist and politically incorrect punishment
Title:Purpose
Connotation
Attitude
Shifts
Title (2)
Theme
• The poem shows the racial injustice in the 19th century for African Americans, it shows the true feelings of the community when someone is lynched and how there is no compassion for any of the victims
• It goes from the peacefulness of ascending to heaven to be with his father to the sorrow-less women and the children who dance around his body, “fiendish glee”.
Analysis:
Title
Purpose:Connotation
Attitude
Shifts
Title (2)
Theme
Analysis: Poetic Devices• “high heaven” is an example of
alliteration• “night a bright” is an example of
rhyme• “fate's wild whim” is not only
personification but is alliteration too
• “little lads, lynchers” is an example of alliteration
• “eyes of steely blue” is an example of imagery
TitlePurpose
Connotation:Attitude
Shifts
Title (2)
Theme
Analysis:
The attitude or tone of the poem starts out very peaceful and spiritual but then turns sad and distressed, because even though the man was rising up to heaven where his body remained was being desecrated and destroyed by an angry mob. And because of the awful and violent ways they treat the body the assumption could be made that the man was African American
TitlePurpose
Connotation
Attitude:Shifts
Title (2)
Theme
Analysis:• The poem is arranged in an ABBA
formation• The title of the poem remains the
same and recalls of a tale of a man lynched for his crimes
• The theme of The Lynching is to tell the reader of the time in which Claude lived and what circumstances there were for people who committed crimes in this time whether white or black
TitlePurpose
Connotation
Attitude
Shifts:
Title (2):
Theme: