Comparing Quest 'And If We Must Die'

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Recommended: American Negro Poetry

In Quest by Claude McKay and If We Must Die by Langston Hughes, two sides of the African American experience were portrayed. In if we must die by Langston Hughes, he narrates what it feels like to be so utterly that all you can think about death. He portrays this by using the same quote “if we must die”. However he shows that he wants to die as something, that he wants his life to have had meaning in it which is shows by the line “if we must die, O let us nobly die”. He wants his blood or his family in simpler terms to not be shed in vain or destroyed for nothing. In the last few stanzas of the poem however Langston seems to see hope almost like his dream is not deferred just yet. “Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back” accurately shows his willingness to stand up for once and try to fight for equality. In Quest by Claude McKay, it seems as though she is looking for an opportunity. “I paused at every postern gate and knocked at every door”, shows how she is waiting for something and I perceive the knocking on the door as knocking on the door of opportunity. I think this because throughout the poem she mentions something like a journey. She represents this by the quote “in vain I Searched for the land and sea”, which shows somewhat of a journey. Also I think that this is a journey or a search for opportunity because in the last line she …show more content…

One thing that they have in common is that they both seem to be searching for hope or opportunity. In Quest however, Claude seems to be nearing the end of her journey looking for opportunity but in If We Must Die, Langston Hughes seems to just be beginning his “fight”. I think that the message of hope and opportunity is very important because as African Americans in the Harlem renaissance, that’s all they really had to hold on to. This message of hope and opportunity directly relates to “A Raisin in the Sun” because most of these times the hopes or opportunities were

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