After reading "As the Lord Lives, He is one of Our Mother's Children", there were a few things I found that were strange. The one thing I want to know is how did Gentlemen Jim know that the reverend and his son were going to be on that train? I also think that Reverend Stevens is a strange man himself. As a reverend he is supposed to be acting in the way of God, yet he doesn't really feel compelled to help Jim after he realized his true identity. Even though the reverend does eventually spare Jim, he doesn't really help him out after that, and Jim eventually moves out after getting a job in another state. I think a very broad message from this story is that terrible things can happen to good people, something that was a common theme throughout certain parts of the United States during the Reconstruction time period.
After reading McKay's poems the one question that came to my mind was how McKay correctly predicts America's downfall (although America has since recovered from the Great Depression). This theme I think is especially strong in the poems "America" and "Africa" where McKay compares America to things like "priceless treasures sinking in the sand" or "...now thy time is done, of all the mighty nations of the sun."
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