Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Blog 5- Shadows and Street Corners
Harlem Shadows by Claude Mckay is about the Harlem prostitutes. The speaker describes seeing the shapes of young dark girls bending over at the will of their customers. These girls are always working, just to stay alive. They have no moral or ethical character, and the only way they know how to survive is to sell their bodies. These girls are in poverty, but the decision they have made to sell themselves has placed them at a level of disgrace, they are lower than the dirt that they stand upon. These women could be doing something more productive in society to support themselves and keep themselves alive than defiling themselves. These young women reflect the time rather well...
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(Aauzsa Mack)
ReplyDeleteWell put Mr. Ryan, you seem to have interpret the poem as it was indicated by McKay, but I will have to disagree with your ending you put “These women could be doing something more productive in society to support themselves and keep themselves alive than defiling themselves” which could be taken from the poem also but you have to put in consideration that the young girls might have been put into this situation with no other choice. Sure they could be getting an education or working a legit job but they are poverty ridden and with the addition of them being Black Americans adds on that maybe it was just a little too hard for them to find a job or to come out of the dark ways of prostitutions.