Claude McKay's House in Harlem is the most popular picaresque novel, winning the Harman Gold Prize for Literature. McKay is a famous twentieth-century African-American writer, poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, essayist, and also autobiographer. He was born in central Jamaica on September 15, 1889 to farmer 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 important novels. Although this novel was negatively criticized by prominent African American writers such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Lock, because McKay provides realistic fiction rather than uplifting fiction. Through his realistic writing WEB Dubois and Alain Lock are able to realize the real-life unpleasant sides of Harlem's growing population of working-class blacks. Then it was later well received and appreciated for its unbiased portrayal of black life and Harlem. Thus, through the novel's preface, Wayne F. Cooper describes: McKay remained abroad, a younger generation of black writers had begun to break the strictures of the tradition of gentlemanly protest prescribed by an older African-American leadership. Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Rudolph Fisher, Zora Neale Hurston, and Nella Larsen had begun to expand the boundaries of African-American literature in the face of conservative African-American criticism. At the same time, a Negro fad among New York critics had begun to make Harlem cabarets and nightclubs and African-American music and literature increasingly attractive to white literary audiences, especially in New York City. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Through the quote Wayne F. Cooper states that it is an explicit representation of the unpleasant aspects of the life of proletarian blacks in Harlem. The Harlem location elicits even more critical comments. It quickly garners both exaggerated praise and condemnation. Conservative black critics condemned it as a narrowly commercial work that pandered to the worst stereotypes of African-Americans held by white America, while some white critics uncritically praised it as “the real thing in right… the latest news on Harlem, the drug of inside." For example, Langston Hughes declared to McKay that "without a doubt it is the greatest thing we have ever done... your novel should give a second youth to the negro vague." Through the novel McKay describes the life of blacks in the working class in Harlem and in Europe Similarly the novelist describes how the black youth lead their life in the white society and what are the problems they faced in their life and also shows how they are rediscovering their black identity with the white society important of the novel Home to Harlem. Therefore, Burton Rascoe's essay entitled "The seedy side" outlines the novel Home to Harlem, is not a successful Negro who has achieved good results in trades and professions and has built himself a house, he sent his children to school and engaged in civil and social activities. social activities of a sober and respectable nature. It is the story of the working-class stevedores and thieves, of the maids and porters, of the waiters and toilet attendants, of the cooks and kitchen maids, of the "penny thieves" and of all those who compensate for the defeat in life in which a white man lives. world with a wild intensity between them at night. The article focuses on the representation of young men in Claude McKay's Home to Harlem. So, the novel describes the main character JakeBrown, who is a young and also an attractive and handsome man, with dark brown skin. He is an easy going person from Petersburg Virginia. He is run away from the army without taking a proper leave, because he is forced to do menial work rather than soldiering. The only reason since he belongs to the black race. Therefore, he experienced racial prejudice and alienation. So he deserted the army at the time of the First World War and reached and stayed in London. Where he works as a cook on a ship, at the same time he has a relationship with a white girl. Their relationship is unpleasant because he is not satisfied with the white woman. Because, according to Jake, the white woman is a creature of another race from another world. When he begins to desire the bodies of black and brown women in Harlem. Jake's desire to reach Harlem as quickly as possible is revealed by 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 expresses his wish anyway. This explores his need to visit Harlem: Take me home to Harlem, Mr. Ship! Bring me the brown girls who wait. The brown boys who showed their courage over there. Take me home, Mr. Ship. Put your beak directly in that water and move on… Therefore, when he reaches Harlem, Jake feels homesickness and boredom. He has an unquenchable thirst for joy in the form of sex, alcohol and music. Likewise, he is thrilled to see the beauties of Harlem again when he walks along Seventh Avenue. When his blood is warm, his eyes and nose are alert as he sniffs the street like a bloodhound and feels that Seventh Avenue is beautiful, a little too beautiful that night. After that, Jake returns to Lenox Avenue with amorous women, then goes to Baltimore. Baltimore is a cabaret in Harlem, where he meets his beloved brunette women. This cabaret is famous among both whites and blacks. For a long time it is closed due to public order measures undertaken by the police team for including and encouraging gambling, pornography, prostitution and illegal use of alcohol and drugs. In the cabaret, a girl, struck by the tailoring of his gray dress, sewn in England, looks him in the eyes. She is attracted to him, his attitudes and his hungry wolf eyes. The author says about the dark girl, her name is Felice. She is brunette, but has colored her leaf-shaped face an attractive brown and dresses beautifully. Jake orders a scotch and soda, but she only wants a ginger ale. A cabaret singer approaches their table to sing. Jake gives a big tip, fifty cents. Then they walk down Lenox Avenue. He holds her arm; both are overwhelmed by each other. Despite her response to him, she begins to bargain with him over the price of having intercourse with her. Jake finally accepts a generous sum of twenty dollars, and he's happy to pay it because she's so beautiful. They go to a buffet to pay. It is a private house that serves food and is open to guests by invitation only. A mixed-race woman who runs the house appears to know the girl. The owner serves beer, wine, records, 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 of returning to Harlem. The next morning, Jake wakes up, eats breakfast and gets dressed. Next, he wanders down Lenox Avenue, where he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a fifty-dollar bill. On it is pinned a piece of paper on which is written in pencil, on that paper he writes "just a little gift from a little girl to a darling!". Jake always thinks about her and tries to get back to her, but changes his mind because he thinks he is a man who should never let a woman thinktoo crazy about her. This shows Jake's patriarchal perspective on women. It is a hint to his masculine characteristic nature. Jack goes to Uncle Doc's saloon, where he left his suitcase, then gets a scotch and soda. While he drinks, his friend Zeddy Plummer approaches him and pats him on the shoulder. Zeddy, who has finished his military service, is a snitch, a sweetheart, a scab, a gambler, a heavy drinker, and a profound cheater. The author describes Zeddy as: "stocky, broad-shouldered, flat-footed." Jake tells him he needs to find a place to stay, takes his suitcase and then goes to a pool hall, where he beats Zeddy at the game. Afterwards, they receive 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 hard work they did to build the soldiers' huts. The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) where only white soldiers could stay, the fighting between whites and blacks led to entering the brothels on the main street, burying one of Zeddy's closest friends who is killed by the Americans in the cemetery there. The black man says 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 anyone his secret. The government seriously searches deserters and people avoid the military draft. Jake tells Zeddy that he shouldn't reveal his whereabouts and status. Either way, black people should be stupid about his house. Plus Zeddy says they'll "just want to puke their white guts out on each other." Zeddy says that Jake must have been longing for the company of black women while he was in Europe. Jake is in search of the incomparable woman of Harlem, however, Jake says that women have also brought him home and after landing he finds exactly what he is looking for. He hopes to find the woman from the night before. The two men part ways with the promise of meeting tomorrow evening at Uncle Doc's. Jake also learns from two other old friends that there is plenty of work for longshoremen. After leaving Doc's, Jake walks the streets looking for the girl's apartment and talks about the city. Now he works on the shore and goes to keep the ships. In the essay titled “Claude McKay and the Cult of Primitivism” by Michael B. Stoff states that the novel is a vivid look at the lowest depths of black life in urban America. Its peripatetic plot and dialect-oriented style are consistent with its thematic emphasis on the black man as the unbridled son of civilization. Set in the black ghetto of New York, the novel defines Harlem as a carnal jungle. While looking for the brunette girl Felice, Jake visits the famous Congo cabaret. Where he meets the singer, Congo Rose, both are involved in a relationship. After sharing his bed she proposes her love to him. He couldn't feel the same way about her as he did about his little lost brown girl from Baltimore. So she rejects his proposal even after having fun in bed. Therefore McKay describes this type of sexual relationship as based on economic necessity. Because Jake needs the girl Congo Rose's money. Through the events, readers can understand how Congolese stand-up comedian Rose's money is exploited. After a long conversation between them, Jake slaps her in the face. While she is happy instead she gets angry. When, Jake is shocked by his enjoyment of the pain. Due to her clear masochism, Jake stops buying money from her. He is pushed by Jake and takes a job on the Pennsylvania Railroad as a waiter in the dining car. Where he meets a Haitian, Ray, who also works as a waiter in the railroad dining car in Pittsburgh. It's the name of thecity ​​in Pennsylvania. Who attended Howard University before working on the railroad. His wish was to become a famous writer but he couldn't achieve success with his dream. During the French Revolution he lost his father and brother. So he has financial problems to continue his studies. So, he fails to become a good writer. He is a cynical Haitian immigrant and a serious, thoughtful and studious man. And he too is a second protagonist of the novel. Ray Intento wants to introduce his colleagues to politics, literature and the achievements of blacks in the world. For this reason he is proud of black cultural heritage and looks forward to teaching his friends about their social and cultural background. Through the character the reader can understand that McKay portrays the character Ray as himself in the novel. Similarly, Benjamin Brawley's essay entitled “The New Realists” discusses the importance placed on the novel's second protagonist, Ray, a character of superior intellect who could be mistaken for the novelist himself. And the result of the novel, House in Harlem, which sold thousands of copies but which with its emphasis on certain degraded aspects of life hardly did justice to the writer's talents. Jake Brown, on his first night home from France, meets the brunette girl in the cabaret, and the book is largely about his search until he finds her. There isn't much story, but the realism is stark, the colors vivid and there is an impressionistic view of the crowds on the streets of Harlem. Therefore, through the events, the audience can analyze that Ray's character is definitely a version of McKay himself. According to McKay's autobiographical work titled A Long Way from Home he also has evidence that McKay is a Jamaican who attended Tuskegee Institute and worked on the New York to Pittsburgh route as a railroad clerk and worked on the New York to Pittsburgh route as a clerk railway. Additionally, the character Ray gives voice to McKay's social and political views. And also who is sermon, a propagandist of McKay's philosophy of the need for blacks to maintain their extroverted, emotional, non-hypocritical and sensual ways, of the need for racial self-confidence through awareness of the glories of black civilizations and the need to fight within the existing social framework for rapid improvement of the conditions in which they lived. Likewise, he is noticeably pessimistic as if "civilization is rotten" and says he may see World War I as totally evil. He considers his education at Howard University to be essentially white and essentially unsuitable for an aspiring social realist writer. His explanation is that he doesn't want to be "one of the happy pigs in the Harlem pigsty", but this is specious: he is unable, even with all the confidence he has in his philosophical position, to accept the challenges that life in Harlem presents. Then he leaves for Europe, a convenient escape route. This clearly shows that Ray is an inadequate foil for Jake. Those who, despite lacking formal education or any recognizable understanding of sociology, politics and economics, decide to face challenges with Felice's support. Nathan Irvin Huggins' essay titled “Heart of Darkness” described that Ray, as the voice of McKay, attacks with genuine bitterness the United States, the civilization of white men, and the European domination of people of color. The focus of the novel is elsewhere on Jake's search for Felice, but there is foreshadowing of shadowy people. The focus of the novel elsewhere is on Jake's search for Felice, but there is a foreshadowing of a radical, racial primitivism. Therefore, Jake can finally see his brunette girlfriend in the Shaba palace. Jake dances to the sensual music.