Let’s talk about the structure of this poem. Since the structure is rigid and fixed, it structurally mirrors the feeling of dependability that results from courage and bravery as we question life’s inevitable changes such as racism.
At the beginning of the poem, the animalistic metaphor ‘if we must die, let it not be like hogs… while round us bark the mad and hungry dogs’ dehumanizes the African Americans as they constantly were dealt with injustice by their enemy, being locked up for no reason and were killed like ‘hogs’. However, you think this would make them give up. It’s the complete opposite, it gave African Americans hope and courage to fight for their freedom.
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McKay strongly explores individual human motivation as he senses that his community is being oppressed and does not want his people to constantly be in fear. It should be a matter of having hope and courage, as long as people fight and die for a cause, that’s what really matters. And so, don’t allow fear to strip away your morals no matter how difficult it is when opposing the face of a collective that defines what truth and morality are just like Proctor facing the court.
Due to racial riots in the Red Summer, death was what helped a person to realize what was important in life and we see this in the biblical allusion ‘If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed in vain. It is about how he goes about facing death, not questioning whether he will die or what will happen after his death. How would an individual approach death if they are facing it? Well, use it as a driving force, always fight, and have hope, it is better to die fighting with glory and honor and not having any regrets about you doing nothing.
This way you are able to be honored by the enemy. Whether or not his community fights or not, they are going to die one day, this is obviously inevitable, we see this in the simile at the end of the poem “Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, pressed to the wall… Dying, but fighting back!”. And so it is brave to die fighting than to die doing nothing, knowing that you have fought for your dignity and that you fought for something worthwhile.
For McKay, if they die fighting, their enemies will honor and acknowledge them after their death. This also emphasizes the importance of not abandoning your morals in the face of social pressure, just like the Crucible does.
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