Poem Response Final for America by Claude McKay

        "I love this cultured hell that tests my youth", this is a quote from Claude McKay's America. In this poem the speaker shows just how hard it was and still is, to make it in America. In the poem, you see multiple times that the speaker is troubled with their attempt of finding success, but it uses oxymorons to show that they also find the experience a challenge in a good way, and enjoy the ride. Examples of the speaker showing how hard it is to find success in America, is when they say, "Darkly I gaze into the days ahead", another example is when they declare that they "Love this cultured hell that tests my youth", and a final example is when they state that "Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood". These examples show how hard it is to make it in America. And that this poem shows it.
The first example of the speaker showing how hard it is to make in America is when they say "darkly I gaze into the days ahead" (McKay 11). This shows that the journey and the days to success are going to be difficult and grueling. It doesn't show excitement, it shows the determination to find success despite the difficulty and annoyance. It shows the hard work that people had to put in just to get there, let alone what they had to do once they actually got there. McKay shows that people looked with dread into their journey ahead of them once they got to America. This is what this quote from America by Claude McKay showed.  
Another example of McKay showing how hard it was to make it in America was when the speaker declared that they, "Love this cultured hell that tests my youth" (McKay 4). This quote came across as very interesting to me. It shows challenges, and that it tests peoples being but it also uses an oxymoron to show that the speaker was enjoying the challenge. This made me wonder if this poem was about immigration. I thought this as people come to America with thoughts of amazement and brilliance, but then the challenge to succeed is and was incredibly difficult. Even though it's difficult, grueling, scary and annoying, people still feel that love for America and the excitement to be a part of it. In that way many people have and do love the journey to making it in America and this oxymoron between loving this hell that tests youth explains it perfectly. This is another example of how Claude McKay's America shows how bard it is to make it in the USA.
The last example of the speaker in America showing how hard it is to make it in the USA, is when they state that "Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood" (McKay 7). In this quote the speaker shows that America, full of its possibilities, can quickly knock you off your feet but catch up with you in the end, whether good or bad. They show this in this quote by using "bigness" to refer to America. This shows the endless possibilities, the size as well as the overwhelming quality of America. Another thing the speaker does in this quote is say that America "sweeps my being like a flood", by using sweep and flood as the word choice it shows that it can knock you down, and catch up with you in a good or bad way. This is how this quote supports Claude McKay's America and that it's hard to make it in America.
After reading this poem I realized how hard it is to build up a life and success in America. In conclusion Claude McKay's America shows how hard it is to make it in America. There are multiple ways the speaker shows this. One is when they say "Darkly I gaze into the days ahead" (McKay 11), another way is when the speaker declares "I love this cultured hell that tests my youth" (McKay 4), and a third and final line where the speaker shows this is when they state "Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood" (McKay 7). This is what I gathered and thought while and after reading the poem America  by Claude McKay.