In Claude McKay’s, “Harlem Dancer”, he uses a double edged motif of happiness and turmoil to express the anguish that the protagonist feels about her profession. The positive images conjured include, “perfect, half-clothed body sway (line 2)”, “proudly-swaying palm (line 7)” and “black shiny curls luxuriant fell (line9-10)”. One should pay attention to the image of strength with “palm” and the “luxuriant” quality, which lends a posh description of the dancer. To engage the sense of the ears, McKay writes that the dancer has a voice like “blended flutes (line 3)”, which likens her voice with harmonious music. These descriptions evoke a sense that a talent, beautiful, confidant woman is enjoys giving her performance to the audience.
However, one later realizes that she does not enjoy dancing for her audience and shields her true emotions for the sake of her performance. McKay writes that she seems stronger for “passing through a storm (line 8)” and had a “falsely-smiling face (line 13)”. It is important to note that the previous sound of “blended flutes” contrasts with the “storm” that is presented as the yang in the dual emotions that the dancer feels. In addition, the “falsely-smiling face” means that she is presenting a façade to the audience. Furthermore, the image of a seaside beach depicted by her body being like a “palm” is in contrast with the “strange” place that the writer alludes to. This strange place is of unknown description, but one gathers that it has a negative, uncertain quality to it. Thus, McKay uses imagery and sound to present the happiness that the Harlem dancer must show to the audience and the inner turmoil that she feels from dancing for money in front of an audience that “devours” her form.
Sonia--I agree with you that McKay beautifully depicts a vivid image of duality through the strong, yet sorrowful dancer. I especially liked how you related the imagery of the dancer’s form being a swaying palm to her strength and pride. Because such qualities generally are not used to describe a social outcast like the dancing gypsy, I think they help enhance her "perfect" form beyond her superficial beauty. Consequently, the readers, as I certainly did, form a certain connection with the dancer as she is no longer simply a pretty image, but a confident, brilliant woman of virtue. And such connection later augments the conflict a reader may feel when the dancer is devoured by the ignorant, lustful eyes that fail to perceive her inner beauty. Additionally, going along with your interpretation of the “blended flutes” invoking our sense of hearing and representing harmony, I feel that such vocal imagery does even more. For me, blended flutes, played by the “black players upon a picnic day,” conjure up the image of black slaves, who developed unwavering sense of community and often expressed their hardship through music. Thus, the harlem dancer represents more than herself; she expresses her race, which went through so much pain and suffering—like “passing through a storm”—and yet came out the other side with unwavering sense of identity. (I just realized that while McKay invokes many senses from hearing to vision, McKay does not explicitly reveal the dancer’s skin color—could that be significant?) In all, the mentioned images seem to not only describe the dancer’s outward beauty, but they also establish her as a valuable and respectable epitome of a race that contains so much duality within itself—how the years of struggle polished its indomitable strength and beauty like age often does for diamonds.
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