How Would You Choose?

      Wavering between two nations and two cultures; I could not imagine the feeling of being in the middle of two things I love and have to constantly deal with choosing between the two. My perplexing question would be “How do you choose?” I mean I have never been in a situation to the extent that McKay felt while being moved from Africa to America. My biggest problems have been choosing which shoes to wear with this outfit. I want to know how he would handle things. How can he get along with his life with a constant struggle between two cultures? He states, “Something in me is lost, forever lost/ Some vital thing has gone out of my heart”. I honestly wouldn’t know how to handle anything if I was moved from my home to a new country with completely different customs than that of my home. The poem is a riveting account of his fight with overcoming the obstacle that is his “natural culture”. The title alone, “Outcast”, already describes what a hardship that McKay dealt with. If I ever felt like an outcast, I’m not sure how I would handle it. I don’t handle change very well so I would guess it would be very hard for me to adjust and be ok with myself enough to make an effort to fit in!
         In general, I think that McKay was brave to endure the battle between what he had become accustomed to and what he was literally hit in the face with when he moved to America! If I had been in that situation I would not have been as strong as he sounds in his poem. So how do you choose? My guess is that it just has to come naturally.