The Illusion of Perfection

Looking at the poem Harlem Dance, by Claude McKay, I think one of the main idea's it is trying to portray is the illusion of performers. Performers are always actors: they must keep up a facade for their audiences. A sonnet, the Harlem Dancer is a "little song", which says something about the idea behind the poem. The way I look at it, it is almost like the lady who is dancing is almost singing her song. However, because someone else is actually telling her story, her song is subdued and hidden, and must be told by someone else. The illusion she keeps can be seen by the contrast between the last two lines and the rest of the poem.

Applauding youths laughed with young prostitutes
And watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway;
Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes
Blown by black players upon a picnic day.
She sang and danced on gracefully and calm,
The light gauze hanging loose about her form;
To me she seemed a proudly-swaying palm

Grown lovelier for passing through a storm.
Upon her swarthy neck black shiny curls
Luxuriant fell; and tossing coins in praise,
The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls,
Devoured her shape with eager, passionate gaze;
But looking at her falsely-smiling face,
I knew her self was not in that strange place. 

At first the poem creates an image of perfection- the Harlem Dancer.

Not only do the words describe her actions and "perfection", the words also create an atmosphere of fluency and swaying back and forth. The rhyming of the a/b/a/b (etc.) brings a repetition of movement, and the alliteration in each of the sentences- "Blown by black players on a picnic day" - gives the precise movements she makes as she dances. Also, the things the author chooses to bring up- "picnic day" are of connotations of who she is. The picnic day is always happy, ideal, and sunny- much like the illusion she gives.

As the poem progresses, however, clues are given to her unhappiness. Described as "grown lovelier for passing through a storm" speaks of a past that might not be so perfect. The gauze that she wears could hide her true emotions about her situation.

Also, not only does the dancer keep her illusion, but the audience also does not truly care about her as a person- not as a dancer. This clue is given at the very beginning, as youths come along with prostitutes- it is not a respectable place where she is dancing so perfectly. Later on, the actions of others portray her illusion of perfection, and how they do not view her as a human with value. The phrase "tossing coins in praise" does not feel as though they really care about what she does- she is only worth a few coins, and their praise is not meaningful. The boys are "wine-flushed" and not thinking very straight, and everyone "devours" her, instead of really appreciating her for who she is.

This all leads to the last two lines, as her "falsely-smiling face" clearly solidifies the idea of the illusion of her perfection. Also, the fact that the narrator says "not herself in that strange place", it is not the dancer that is strange, but the place. I think that the "strange place" is not just referring to the location, but the attitude. It is strange, and wrong, to view her as a useless dancer of perfection. The stranger is not her, who should be treated differently, but the people who do not belong, who are erroneous in their actions and perspectives.