In “The White City” Claude McKay, a black poet from New York who wrote during the early twentieth century, tells of how a black man, possibly McKay, endures the anger he feels toward the oppressive white world that he lives in. Instead of submitting to his anger, he uses it as fuel which encourages him to power forward into the mighty white city, where he uses the features of the world around him to distract him from his own hatred. Many of the features around McKay only remind him of the oppression that the city has caused and anger him further. The speaker conveys the fury and helplessness that he feels during this time of an oppressive and uncaring society. McKay bottles up his emotions and tries to ensure that no one knows how he feels …show more content…
The first four lines explain the main theme, which is enduring the hatred of a society. The next four lines give more information on how the hatred that the poet has to endure affects him. These lines explain the effect by saying that McKay uses hatred to fill his life with meaning and emotion. His hatred gives him a way to tolerate the world around him rather than giving up on trying to live a civil human life. His hatred literally fuels his life and without it he would waste away and die. This could mean that McKay’s will to achieve and compete would die, or it could mean his potential as a human being could die and be lost forever. Both of these deaths show that the hatred is necessary in his life and without it, McKay’s or any oppressed group’s ambition and spirit would be crushed by the oppressive machine. The final group of four lines, introduce a change. Instead of just enduring the oppression in his own environment where he would be more comfortable, McKay decides to go further in the white hell and explore the world that oppresses him. By entering the white city, McKay is coming forward to understand and view the city’s harassment and mistreatment directly. The trains and railway that he sees in the city were worked on by slaves and oppressed black people, who are underappreciated for their hard work. Much of the city was built on the backs of