«The white man is a Tiger at my throat» or the parable of the three bad foundations of human existence: the racial foundation, the hegemonic foundation, and the economic-materialist foundation

Abstract

This paper studies the poem “Tiger” by Claude Mckay from a metaphorical perspective in order to find out and highlight all the possible hidden meanings about the quality of the white man characterized as a “tiger” in the expression “the white man is a tiger at my throat”. This study will be conducted under theories such as stylistics, hermeneutics and sociocriticism and thanks to those theories; we have explored the plurality of meanings of this sonnet by McKay. The meaning revolves around the white man and his role in the life and existence of black people, but also it sheds light on the new deals or bases or foundations which are race, hatred, power and money that the white people have implemented in human existence and the outcomes of those news deals and foundations in everyday life. It is therefore a metaphorical study at three levels in this paper which appreciate the relationships between different races and namely between black people and white people. Through images, symbols and metaphors, the characteristics of the white man in human existence have been presented.