If We Must Die

The dogs and hogs represent the oppressor and oppressed. While this metaphor is straightforward, the choice of animals is a bit ironic and suggests the transformations that happen in the poem.

People tend to see dogs in a much more positive light than hogs. Dogs are companions, they are loyal, and they care for their people. On the other hand, traditionally understood, hogs are smelly, loud, aggressive, and wild. Despite these animals’ associations, McKay inverts the imagery’s significance. In his poem, the dogs are hunting dogs, and the hogs are locked up for slaughter. This context paints the hogs as the sympathetic characters and the dogs as the aggressors.

Furthermore, as the poem progresses, the dogs shift into monsters, and the hogs shift into humans—a transformation solidifying the imagery of the hog victims and the dog oppressors. This relates to the imagery of McKay’s time. The dominant society depicted white people as civilized and Black people as animals. By starting the victims as hogs and the oppressors as dogs, McKay exploits these distorted societal constructions so he can subvert them as the poem evolves. The idea is to show where society is and where it will inevitably go.