Zamora-Melgoza1
José-Iván Zamora-Melgoza
HCOM 324
Dr. Umi Vaughan
March 25, 2013
Home to Harlem
Home to Harlem by Claude McKay is the first novel written by an African American to
become a best seller. The novel was first published in 1928 during a period known as the Harlem
Renaissance. This movement, then known as the “New Negro Movement” is the most influential
cultural movement in African American literary history, it flourished in Harlem, New York
during the 1920’s and 30’s. Through this movement that embraced literature, music, theater, and
visual arts African-Americans sought to re conceptualize “the Negro” apart from white
stereotypes that had influenced black peoples’ relationship to their heritage and to each other.
They also sought to break free of Victorian moral values and bourgeois shame about aspects of
their lives that might, as seen by whites, reinforce racist beliefs.
Home to Harlem gives voice to the alienation and frustration of African-Americans living
in urban areas during an era when Harlem, New York was in vogue. It presents many of the
struggles faced by African-Americans. The novel doesn’t really have a plot to speak of but it
revolves around the life of Jake Brown, an African-American World War I soldier who after
having quitted the army, travelled through France and lived in England for a while returns to his
beloved Harlem, where most of the story takes place. On his first night back in Harlem Jakes
meets a beautiful black girl, Felice, for whom he immediately falls in love after having spent
only one night together, after that night Jake spends a lot of his time searching for her. From then
on Jake bumps into a series of new and old friends: Zeddy, Ray, Rose Congo, Susy, Miss Curdy
Zamora-Melgoza2
and Billy Biasse with whom he experiences many things in an atmosphere of rough, lusty, heavy
drinking. At the end of the novel Jake finds Felice and discovers that she also loves him and has
been looking for him. They leave Harlem and go in search of a new life in Chicago.
This novel possesses many if not all of the characteristics of classic African-American
narratives. African American narratives tend to focus on themes related to and of interest to
African-Americans. In Home to Harlem we find many of those themes including: culture,
racism, religion, slavery, freedom, and equality. Here we also find themes that are universal;
love, alcoholism, sexuality, and violence. Another characteristic found in classic AfricanAmerican narrative is that of incorporating oral poetry into itself. Oral poetry includes many
forms: African American spirituals, gospel, music, blues and even rap. In Home to Harlem we
find a lot of lyrics from blue’s songs. These characteristics are not only found on this classic
African-American novel but also in other literature pieces that we have read in class: The Color
Purple, The Souls of Black Folk and The Confessions of Nat Turner.
The first theme we find in Home to Harlem is that of racism. Jake Brown, the main
character, is a go with the flow kind of guy; he loves to indulge himself in alcohol, sex and night
life activities. Jake had joined the army during World War I in hopes of proving to his country
that he was as American as any White men. However, after being deployed to Germany he found
out that the black soldiers were treated just like back home, differently than whites. Black
soldiers didn’t fight in the war they did manual labor, and he wasn’t there to do no manual labor
he was there to fight for his country, “Jake was disappointed. He had enlisted to fight. For what
else had he been sticking a bayonet into guts of a stuffed man and aiming bullets straight into the
bull’s eye? Toting planks and getting into rows with his white comrades at the Bal Musette were
not adventure. Jake Obtained leave” (McKay 4). This theme continues throughout the first part
Zamora-Melgoza3
of the novel; a remarkable example is when Jake meets an English sailor that calls him “darky”,
he doesn’t feel offended by the sailor referring to him as “darky” but back home he would of,
“There he would rather hear “nigger” than “darky” for he knew that when a Yankee said
“nigger” he meant hatred for Negroes, whereas when he said “darky” he meant friendly
contempt. To feel their hatred made him strong and aggressive, while their friendly contempt
made him ridiculously angry, even against his own will” (McKay 5). In my opinion Jake didn’t
feel offended nor ridicule when the English sailor referred to him as “darky” because in England
blacks were free man during the slavery period in the United States, but he felt ridicule and
offended when Yankees referred to his race as “darkies” because to him that meant forgiving
whites for having treated his race worse than savage animals, and also being insignificant, not
powerful, almost worthless; and he and his race were none of that. They were worth as much as
any White.
Racism continues on chapter five, in this chapter Jake goes back to work at an usual
African-American low paying job but soon he has no work; one of his friends, Zeddy, comes to
him with great news, “men were wanted at a certain pier to unload pineapples at eight dollars a
day. Eight dollars was exceptional wages (43). Shortly after having entered his new okay paying
job Jake finds out through a white man that he was working at a scab because the white men
were on strike, “the man told Jake that there was a strike on and he was scabbing” (44). After
telling Jake that he was working as a scab the white men spoke to him about the union, “he tried
to lead Jake into joining the strike but he refused, “I ain’t a joiner kind of a fellah, “I ain’t a
joiner kind of fellah, “said Jake. “I ain’t no white folks’ nigger and I ain’t no poah white’s fool”
(45). From my perspective I believe that Jake refused to sign to be part of the union because
whites only sought the help from blacks when they wanted to gain something from them, in this
Zamora-Melgoza4
case creating the union. After refusing to sing the petition Jake saw that two white men were
beating a black fellow that had probably also refused to join the strike, “Suddenly he heard sharp,
deep, distressful grunts, and saw behind some barrels a black man down and being kicked
perilously in the rear end by two white men” (46). This lets us see the abuse and racism towards
African-Americans from Whites even long after slavery.
In the first part of the book we see that Jake moves in with Rose Congo, she wants to be a
sort of sugar mamma to him, a very usual thing during that time but he refuses to it. After living
with Rose Congo for a while he decides to leave her and go away from Harlem for a while in
seek of new horizons. Felice is still in his mind, he still loves her.
In the second part of the novel Jake finds a job as a waiter for a food cart that caters to the
black rail road workers in Philadelphia. There he faces a life style worse than probably that of a
homeless animal. He had to sleep in a room with other coworkers where the beds were full bed
bugs, “this is a hell of a dump for a man to sleep in. the place is rocking crazy with bugs” (146).
This once again lets us see the struggles of African-Americans. This lifestyle is not very different
from that of the slavery period, blacks leave under horrible conditions and had to do the worse
jobs in order to survive. In this part of the book Jake meets Ray, to whom he becomes really
close.
Another theme or set of themes presented throughout the novel is sexuality, alcoholism
and even illicit drugs. As I’ve previously mention Jake is a guy that loves Harlem’s night life, he
drinks a lot and from my perspective he just like every African-American around him uses
alcohol to escape from his harsh reality, racism and inequality. In one occasion Jake goes with
his pal Ray to a cabaret to forget a little about their harsh reality, there a guy introduces him to
Zamora-Melgoza5
drugs, “he took another whisky and went like a lean hound after Happy… theah ain’t nothing can
work wicked like snow and whisky. It’ll flip you up from hell into heaven befoh you knows it”
(150). Here we can see that sometimes alcohol wasn’t enough to numb African-Americans
painful reality and they sought other ways to escape from it, that other way being drugs.
McKay also presents on Home to Harlem the theme of education, to present this theme
McKay brings in Ray. Ray is a college educated Haitian immigrant; he is very intellectual and
dreams of being a writer. Ray had to leave college because he had no money and no way to pay
for it, “I had nobody to pay for me at the university, so I had to get out and work” (138) but even
though he had to stop attending college he never stopped studying, “Never going to stop. I study
now all the same when I get a little time. Every free day I have in New York I spend at the
library downtown. I read there and I write” (138). Ray is sort of the opposite of Jake, he is not
greedy, doesn’t enjoy being out in cabarets indulging in alcohol and sex but rather being in his
room reading and educating himself. He is torn between the world of the white man, where he
does not fit in, and the Harlem world, where he does not quite fit in either. When I say torn
between the white men’s and the black men’s world I refer to the fact that Ray is educated yet
lives in a world where black is regarded as inferior to white.. Through this theme the author
seeks to show us that blacks were usually uneducated due to their social status, and when they
were educated they suffered even more because they could not get out of the life they had
because they of their skin color and whites prejudice against the black race.
The theme of culture is also presented in the novel. This theme seems very intriguing and
interesting to me. African-Americans share a slavery past so they stick together during harsh
times. When an African-American is going through a bad period, sickness, hunger,
homelessness, there is always someone to help him and share with them the bit that they have.
Zamora-Melgoza6
We can see an example of this when Jake is jobless and his landlady lets him live in the house
without paying, “for five weeks I had not paid my rent. I was worried, and Ma Lawton, my
landlady, was also worried. She had her bills to meet. She was a good-hearted old women from
South Carolina... she give a pillow and a heavy quilt, and said I should try and make myself
comfortable there until I got work” (247). In addition to letting Jake stay in the house without
paying his landlady finds a job for him, “the next day Ma Lawton got me a job in the little freelunch saloon right under her flat. It wasn’t a paying job as far as money goes in New York, but I
was glad to have it” (247). This shows as that black fellows never let their people suffered by
themselves. They help them in the bit that they can.
The last part of the book presents the theme of love, of never giving up, and of searching
for a new beginning, “love should be joy lifting man out of the humdrum ways of life” (328). In
this part Jake finds Felice, the girl that he had met on his first night back to Harlem and fallen in
love with, “he spied the little brown that he had entirely given over as lost” (297). And after
talking to her he found out that she always loved him, “O my Gawd! Its mah heartbreaking
daddy! Where was you all this time?”(298). after this Jake and Felice decide to start a new
beginning in Chicago. The end to me it’s very beautiful. It represents leaving behind ones past
and going in search of a new and better future without looking back. This ending also shows
what African-Americans wanted to achieve with the Harlem Renaissance, show that AfricanAmericans had a future, and that they were ready to show the world what they were capable of.
In conclusion, Home to Harlem is a classic piece of African-American literature because
it presents to us themes related and of interest to African-Americans. Themes such as: racism,
inequality, harsh reality, alcoholism, culture and love. The book also mixes a lot of lyrics from
blues songs throughout the text.