Friday, March 26, 2010
Harlem Shadows
"Harlem Shadows" written by Claude McKay is a similar poem to another one of his works called "The Harlem Dancer". This poem is mainly about the prostitutes way of life at night in Harlem. "To bend and barter at desire's call", is an example of how these young women, do whatever they can to earn a type of living. Changing their times around to make the money that they need to survive in the world. They work all nights and long nights which normally do not end "until the silver break". This poem is an overall view of the nights that prostitutes work and how the world around them looks down upon them. My question is if they are full of the "poverty, dishonor and disgrace," then why do people still "use" them in that manner? Obviously, they are just trying to make a living, by going from street to street. These young women are a type of victim and are worn out by the society around them. Their feet are tired and worn by all of the walking and standing they have to endure. Physically and emotional worn by the stress and the long nights. Overall this poem just tells a story about the prostitutes in Harlem and what they go thru during the nights that they work. In a sense it could state that to get where you want to go in the future, you may do things you never believed you would or that its a long tough road to achieve what you want in life.
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Cadet Miller brings really good points and ideas of the poem and even tells us about the similarity with some of his other poems which helps us in the better understanding of it. The poem really captures the attention when they talk about prostitution and how the use to be in that time. It’s a matter of things a women had to do in order to survive and don’t matter how it was they just had to do it. Society often looked at them like they were one of the worst things ever and that it’s not the way to treat people regardless of what they do or do not do.
ReplyDeleteCadet Miller is right about the fact that it's telling a story of the life of a prostitute in Harlem. And how they didn't intend to do this but they're just trying to make a living because things in their life didn't work out the way they planned. She is also correct in saying that they are a type of victim by society and are worn out by what people expect from them, which isn't much. They aren't happy wiht what they are doing but they don't know anything else. It is a long tough road to acheive what you want, and you should never just settle. Work hard and you'll achieve better. Miller does a great job explaining and going into depth about this poem.
ReplyDeleteCadet Miller made some valid points in her writing. Some people don’t have a choice on what work or lifestyle they would like to live. Many of the women in the Harlem time period were very misfortunate. They didn’t have all the luxuries that we have today. When you are living that type of life, you have to do whatever you can to survive. Prostitution was there only way of making it through life and being able to survive. People look down on others because of their jobs or their style of living but they do not know the story behind those people’s lives. In life you have to do whatever you can to make it, and that’s all that they were trying to do in this poem.
ReplyDeleteCadet Miller good points about the Harlem Dancers in describing how these women who were suffer was forced to hide their emotions and do their jobs as entertainers its hard to imagine someone unhappy having a job to make people happy. But I guess when you don’t have a choice you can only do what’s necessary to survive. This poem can be looked upon in a different light and be determine that maybe we shouldn’t feel bad for the Dancers because everybody have a choice and if they would have did things differently earlier in their life maybe they would be in that situation
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