Claude

Claude McKay Love is the main character and narrator of the novel. Raised on the South Shore of Chicago, his parents abandon him at a young age, leaving him to be raised by his grandmother and her friend Paul. As a child, he struggles with the loss of his parents, crying constantly until Grandma finally throws out their possessions in an effort to force him to move on. Claude also deals with constant loss when it comes to friends – of his two best friends in elementary school, one moves away and one dies in a parachute accident. At one point, Claude reports that he heard Grandma and Paul listing his problems in the kitchen: that he is “sentimental, no backbone, adrift, unspectacular” (31). Grandma describes him as a “self-hating black boy,” but also adds that he is the best person in the house (123). She believes in his potential and...