The Tropics in New York

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1922

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Nostalgia

Nostalgia is a powerful feeling of both pleasure and sadness when looking back on happy memories; the sadness comes from the knowledge that such times are past and will not come again.

Nostalgia can be triggered by a sense experience in the present—a sight, a sound, a smell. For example, after a long absence, you might be driving through your hometown, and the sudden sight of a familiar building could trigger a nostalgic feeling about that time in your life, along with a flood of old memories. Hearing a song from the past can also evoke a powerful feeling of nostalgia. It can suddenly bring back the whole flavor of the time when you first heard it and used to listen to it a lot—you might find yourself remembering exactly what you were doing in those days, what your situation in life was, what you thought and felt in those long-gone days. Nostalgia can be triggered by a smell of something that takes you back to a former time when you last smelled it—the scent of a flower, for example, or the smell of a certain food as it is being cooked.

In “The Tropics in New York,” the sense of sight prompts nostalgia. When the speaker sees the array of lush fruit in the store window, he is immediately transported back to his tropical island home and the happy days of his youth. He recalls the natural beauty of his environment then, with its “fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills, / And dewy dawns” (Lines 6-7). His memory of his hometown paradise is bittersweet because those days are gone and will never return. The pleasure of the memory quickly turns into a wrenching sadness, a longing that affects him so deeply that he can no longer look at the fruit in the window. Feeling emotionally overwhelmed, he turns away and dissolves into tears.

Such a powerful reaction might suggest not only the love he still has for those days in paradise—which were no doubt rich with family, friends, and the pleasant and familiar life of the village—but also that his present situation leaves much to be desired. It is perhaps the sudden contrast between his life as it is now and his former life, as experienced in this moment of nostalgia, that produces the tears.

The Immigrant Experience

The speaker of the poem is likely an immigrant to the United States, perhaps someone like McKay, the poet. McKay grew up in Jamaica, but by the time the poem was published in 1920, he spent the best part of a decade in the United States, including several years in New York City.

The thriving metropolis of New York City has always been a magnet for immigrants from all over the world. However, the adjustment that the immigrant must make to his or her new environment is often profound and difficult. It takes time to adjust to a new culture in which language, customs, and way of life, not to mention climate, might differ from the immigrant’s former country.

The difference between the speaker’s homeland and his adopted land is apparent in the poem. He grew up in a rural, tropical environment but now finds himself in an urbanized area in which he does not feel at home. He is, after all, in a foreign land. One detail at the beginning of the second stanza symbolically suggests this: The fruit is arranged behind a glass window, which cuts him off from the display even as it plays on the chords of his memory. This effect is also suggested by the fact that he stands outside the store, gazing at the fruit inside, but he does not enter. He is caught between two worlds—his beloved homeland, so cherished in his memory, and the new world in which he feels uncertain and lost.

This impression is strengthened if the reader visualizes the scene described in Stanza 3. The speaker cuts a sad figure, standing alone on the street, weeping. He does not fit in his environment; he cannot go with the flow of life there. Something is amiss; he is an outsider and perhaps feels alienated in New York City, as if he is in exile.

City Versus Country

The contrast between life in the city and life in the country pervades the poem, which is a common theme in McKay’s poetry. The first stanza of “The Tropics in New York,” with its rich images of tropical fruit, conjures up an idyllic setting in which nature’s bounty is laid out for all to enjoy. The fruit is ready to be touched, tasted, and savored. The contrast with the city becomes apparent in the first line of the second stanza, which suggests much more than it states explicitly. The key phrase is “Set in the window” (Line 5), which sets up a barrier between the speaker and the object of his attention. It becomes apparent that these fruits are not ready to touched, tasted, and savored unless the speaker should enter the store and make a purchase. Now, the fruits in the city window have been wrenched from their natural context in the fertile land that produced them; they have become part of a system of commerce, a commodity to be bought and sold—but only to those who have money to buy them.

After this telling image of the city window, the poem returns to a series of idyllic images of life in the country, in which grocery stores are absent but fruit trees are abundant, and the blessed land seems to belong to everyone. So strongly is the poem weighted in favor of the country over the city that in the third stanza, the poet, overwhelmed by nostalgia for the country, finds himself shutting off from his immediate urban environment. His “eyes grew dim” (Line 9) and he turns away. He can no longer look at the fruit. This is a complete turning away of body and soul, as he feels a “wave of longing” (Line 10) and deep hunger for his homeland. He bows his head, which suggests a slump in his posture—although the bowing might also represent an unconscious act of reverence toward his home in paradise—and he begins to weep. In this moment, he stands defeated by the stark and absolute contrast his memory of former times presents with the bleakness (it would seem) of his current urban environment.