Claude McKay's Harlem House is the most popular picaresque novel, which won the Harman Gold Prize for Literature. McKay is a famous 20th-century African-American writer, poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, essayist and autobiographer. He was born in central Jamaica on September 15, 1889, to peasant parents. He died on May 22, 1948 in Chicago, Illinois. McKay has written four novels. Home to Harlem is his first novel published in 1928. It is one of McKay's most notable novels. Although this novel has been negatively reviewed by prominent African-American writers like WEB Du Bois and Alain Lock, McKay offers realistic fiction rather than edifying fiction. Thanks to his realistic writing, WEB Dubois and Alain Lock are able to realize the unpleasant sides of the real life of the growing population of the black working class of Harlem. It was later well received and appreciated for its unbiased portrayal of black life and Harlem. Therefore, through the foreword of the novel, Wayne F. Cooper describes: McKay remained abroad, a younger generation of black writers began to break the constraints of the genteel protest tradition prescribed by a leadership older African American. Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Rudolph Fisher, Zora Neale Hurston, and Nella Larsen had begun to push the boundaries of African American literature in the face of conservative African American critics. At the same time, a black vogue among New York critics began to make Harlem's cabarets and nightclubs, as well as African-American music and literature, increasingly attractive to white literary audiences, particularly in New York. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Through the quote, Wayne F. Cooper says that its explicit depiction of the unpleasant sides of the lives of black proletarians in Harlem. The Harlem house provokes even more critical comments. It quickly attracts both exaggerated praise and condemnation. Conservative black critics condemned it as a strictly commercial work that pandered to white America's worst stereotypes of African Americans, while some white critics hailed it wholeheartedly as "the real thing that's right." ...the truth about Harlem, the drugs inside." For example, Langston Hughes told McKay that "this is without a doubt the best thing we've done so far... your novel should give a second youth to the vague negro". Through the novel, McKay depicts the life of the black working class in Harlem and in Europe. Likewise, the novelist describes how young black men lead their lives in white society and what are the. problems they faced in their life and it also shows how they rediscover their black identity with white society These are all the important elements of the novel Home to Harlem Therefore, Burton Rascoe's essay titled "The Seamy Side. " describes the novel Home to Harlem as an example of black people who succeeded in trades and professions, who built their own homes, sent their children to school, and engaged in civic and professional activities. social activities of a sober and respectable nature. This is the story of the longshoremen and working-class backpackers, the maids and Pullman porters, the waiters and bathroom attendants, the cooks and kitchen maids, the "penny thieves" and all those who compensate for defeat in a white man's life. world by a wild intensity between them at night. The article focuseson the representation of young men in Home to Harlem by Claude McKay. Therefore, the novel describes the main character Jake Brown, he is a young man and also a handsome, attractive man, with dark brown skin. She is an easy-going person from Petersburg, Virginia. He fled the army without taking proper leave, because he was forced to be a menial worker rather than a soldier. The only reason since he belongs to the black race. As a result, he experienced racial prejudice as well as alienation. So he deserted the army at the time of the First World War and arrived and stayed in London. Where he works as a cook on a ship, he is at the same time in a relationship with a white girlfriend. Their relationship is unpleasant because he is unhappy with the white woman. Because, according to Jake, the white woman is a creature of another race from another world. It was then that he began to desire the bodies of black and brown women in Harlem. Jake's desire to reach Harlem as quickly as possible is revealed through his crazy conversation with the ship. He knows very well that the ship is an inanimate thing that never responds to his words, but he nevertheless expresses the wish. This explores his desire to visit Harlem: Take me Home to Harlem, Mr. Ship! Take me the brown girls waiting. The brown boys who showed their courage there. Take me home, Mr. Ship. Put your beak directly in that water and move forward... Therefore, when he reaches Harlem, Jake feels nostalgia and boredom. He has an unquenchable thirst for joy in the form of sex, alcohol and music. Likewise, he is excited to see the sights of Harlem again when he walks down Seventh Avenue. When his blood is hot, his eyes and nose are alert because he smells the street like a hound and he thinks Seventh Avenue is nice, a little too nice that evening. After that, Jake returns to Lenox Avenue to the women in love, then he goes to Baltimore. Baltimore is a cabaret in Harlem, where he meets his beloved dark women. This cabaret is famous among both blacks and whites. For a long time it was closed due to police measures to include and encourage gambling, pornography, prostitution and illegal consumption of alcohol and drugs. In the cabaret, a young girl impressed by the cut of his gray suit, sewn in England, looks him in the eyes. She is attracted to him, to his attitudes and to his hungry wolf eyes. The author says about the brunette girl, her name is Felice. She is brunette, but has tinted her leaf-shaped face a pretty brown and dresses beautifully. Jake orders a scotch and a soda, but she just wants a ginger ale. A cabaret singer comes to sing at their table. Jake tips big, fifty cents. Then they walk along Lenox Avenue. He holds her arm; both are overwhelmed by each other. Despite his response, she begins to negotiate with him the price of sex with her. Jake finally agrees to a generous twenty dollars, and he's happy to pay it because she's so beautiful. They go to a buffet apartment to pay. This is a private house that serves food and is open to guests by invitation only. A mixed-race woman who runs the house seems to know the girl. The owner serves beer, wine and it feels like Harlem and Lenox Avenue. After the drinks, Jake only has a fifty dollar bill which he gives to the girl. They sleep together that night, fulfilling one of Jake's fantasies about returning to Harlem. The next morning, Jake wakes up, eats breakfast and gets dressed. Then he wanders over LenoxAvenue, where he reached into his pocket and pulled out a fifty dollar bill. A piece of paper is pinned to it on which is written in pencil, on this paper, she writes “just a little gift from a little girl to a darling! ". Jake still thinks about her and tries to come back to her, but he changes his mind because he thinks he is a man who should never let a woman think too wildly about her. This shows Jake's patriarchal perspectives on women. This is an allusion to his characteristically masculine nature. Jack heads to Uncle Doc's living room, where he left his suitcase, then gets a scotch and a soda. While he is drinking, his friend Zeddy Plummer runs into him and slaps him on the back. Zeddy, who has completed his military service, is an informer, a gentle man, a scab, a gambler, a heavy drinker, and a deep-dive con artist. The author describes Zeddy as: "stocky, thick-shouldered, flat-footed." Jake tells him he needs to find a place to stay, grabs his suitcase, then goes to a pool hall, where he beats Zeddy at a game. Afterwards, they get a chicken dinner from Aunt Hattie. She is Uncle Doc's wife. Zeddy and Jake remember Brest, where they are stationed. Zeddy talks about the rigorous work they did to build the soldiers' cabins. The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) where only white soldiers could stay, fighting between black and white men broke into the main street brothels, burying one of Zeddy's close friends who is killed by the Americans in the cemetery there. The black man claims that Brest is always on the defensive against white Americans and not against Germans. Zeddy asks where Jake went, and Jake tells him he went to London. Zeddy tells Jake that he can't tell his secret to anyone. The government is seriously looking for deserters and people are avoiding enlisting in the army. Jake tells Zeddy that he shouldn't reveal his whereabouts and status. Regardless, black people should be stupid about his place. Plus, Zeddy says they'll "just puke their white guts out on each other." Zeddy says Jake must have been hungry for the company of black women when he was in Europe. Jake is looking for an incomparable woman from Harlem. However, Jake says the women also took him home and he finds exactly what he's looking for after he lands. He hopes to find the woman from the day before. The two men separate, promising to meet at Uncle Doc's tomorrow evening. Jake also learns from two other old friends that there is plenty of work for longshoremen. After leaving Doc's, Jake wanders the streets looking for the girl's apartment and is the talk of the town. He now works on land and will hold ships. In the essay titled “Claude McKay and the Cult of Primitivism” by Michael B. Stoff argues that the novel is a vivid insight into the nether depths of black life in urban America. Its traveling plot and dialect-oriented style are consistent with the thematic emphasis on the black man as the unbridled child of civilization. Set in the black ghetto of New York, the novel turns Harlem into a carnal jungle. While looking for the dark-haired girl Felice, Jake visits the popular Congo cabaret. There where he meets the singer Congo Rose, both have sex. After sharing his bed she offers him her love. He couldn't feel the same feelings for her that he felt for his lost little brown daughter from Baltimore. He therefore rejects her proposal even after having enjoyed the bed. Therefore, McKay describes this type of sexual relationship as being based on economic necessity. Because Jake needs money from the Congo Rose girl. Through theevents, readers can understand how the money is exploited by the Congolese cabaret girl Rose. After a long conversation between them, Jake slaps her. While she is happy, she gets angry. When, Jake is shocked by her joy in suffering. Out of his obvious masochism, Jake stops to buy her some money. This is what inspires Jake to take a job on the Pennsylvania Railroad as a dining car waiter. Where, he meets a Haitian, Ray, who also works as a dining car waiter in Pittsburg. It's the name of a town in Pennsylvania. Who attended Howard University before working on the railroads. His desire to become a famous writer but he could not fulfill his dream. During the French Revolution, he lost his father and his brother. He therefore has economic problems to continue his studies. He therefore fails to become a good writer. He is a cynical Haitian immigrant and a bookish, thoughtful and serious man. And he is also the second protagonist of the novel. Ray Intent wishes to introduce his colleagues to politics, literature and the achievements of black people around the world. It is for this reason that he is proud of black cultural heritage and is eager to teach his companions about their social and cultural origin. Through the character, the reader can understand that McKay portrays Ray's character as himself in the novel. Similarly, Benjamin Brawley's essay "The New Realists" discusses the importance attached to the novel's second protagonist, Ray, a character of superior intelligence who could be mistaken for the novelist himself. And the result of the novel Home to Harlem which sold thousands of copies but which, by emphasizing certain degraded aspects of life, hardly did justice to the writer's gifts. Jake Brown, on his first night back from France, meets the dark-haired girl in the cabaret, and the book is largely devoted to his search until he finds her. There's not much story, but the realism is stark, the colors bright, and there's an impressionistic view of the crowds on the streets of Harlem. Therefore, through the events that the audience can analyze, Ray's character is surely a version of McKay himself. According to McKay's autobiographical work A Long Way from Home, there is also evidence that McKay is a Jamaican who attended Tuskegee Institute and worked in New York in Pittsburg as a railroad employee and worked on the rout from New York to Pittsburgh as a railroad employee. Additionally, the character of Ray is the voice of McKay's social and political views. And also who is a sermon, a propagandist of McKay's philosophy on the need for black people to retain their extroverted, emotional, non-hypocritical, sensual ways, on the need for racial self-confidence through an awareness of the glories of black civilizations and the need to fight within the existing social framework for a rapid improvement of the conditions in which they lived. Likewise, he is remarkably pessimistic, asserting that "civilization is rotten", and he says that he might consider the First World War to be entirely bad. He views his education at Howard University as predominantly white and fundamentally unsuitable for an aspiring social realist writer. His explanation is that he does not want to be "one of the happy pigs in the Harlem pigsty", but this explanation is specious: he is incapable, even with the confidence he has in his philosophical position, of accepting the challenges that life in Harlem presents. So he leaves for Europe, a convenient escape. This clearly shows that Ray is an inadequate foil for.