What is the larger lesson/moral of the story? How does the text communicate about issues of gender, race, ethnicity, democracy, art, war, individualism, etc.

Assignment: African American Literature and the Harlem Renaissance/ Claude McKay bio and “Harlem Shadows”, “if we must die”, “Africa”, “America. Write an essay that makes an argument for what you believe to be the theme of that work. In other words, you want your essay to argue about your interpretation of the text and what that particular text communicates to the reader. You may wish to consider what the text communicates about issues of gender, race, ethnicity, democracy, art, war, individualism, family values, religion, nature, etc.Brainstorming: Consider the following questions to help you get started. What is the larger lesson/moral? What should the reader have gained from reading the text you’ve chosen? How does this theme or moral speak to the historical or cultural events that were occurring when it was produced? Is this theme still relevant today?The text will serve as your primary source and you should use direct quotations from the text as evidence for your argument. You will also need to use at least one secondary source from an academic or peer-reviewed journal. The secondary sources are accessible from the SPC Databases. You may want to review the SPC Library Guide to Literary Analysis. If prompted to enter a user id and password, enter your student number and your birth month and year (ex. if you were born in October 1992, your password is 1092). Although you can make any argument you would like about your text, the goal is to make sure that argument is supported in the body paragraphs with evidence from both the primary and secondary sources. You want to avoid extended plot summary in the body of the essay; instead, you should briefly summarize in the introductory paragraph only. You may also want to keep in mind the literary devices we’ve discussed as possible points of discussion.