After reading several poems written by Claude McKay, and "As the Lord lives, He is One of Our Mother's Children" by Pauline Hopkins, I asked myself if there were any connections or relating views regarding the value of a noble death. In "As the Lord Lives...", we find a fugitive man who is partially African American, and because of that, his punishment was more severe than that of a white man if he were in the same situation. We found out that this fugitive had lied to the Reverand who found him. He tells the reverend that the sole reason for his lying and alias was to avoid the same awful death that he watched and heard when his best friend was savagely lynched by white people. In the story, he claims "'Jones was lynched! God, can I ever forget that hooting, yelling crowd, and the terrible fight to get away!'" which explains how this type of death is among the worst that could happen, and how Jones couldn't bear to hear the awful cheer of the crowd. In "If We Must Die", the narrator describes how if we must die (as in african americans), it should be a dignified, glorified and meek death. In her poem she uses many images such as animals being penned and hunted, and refers to white people as monsters who outnumber them. She also discusses how white people cheer and yell at them when they are about to die and uses the imagery of dogs. "While around us bark the mad hungry dogs". This image specifically parallels with Stone's description of the white people hollering and cheering for his friend's lynching. Clearly, both authors find it disturbing (unsurprsingly) that the lack of manners and respect of the white people make these kinds of deaths brutal, and they find it important that each and every person who does die, should be able to die peacefully and with respect. From both of these texts, we see the importance of having the oppurtunity as an African American to have a calm and peaceful death. In McKay's story, we have proof of this because after Stone gets his second chance from the Reverend, he also gets a second chance with his fate, and even though he dies, he is able to die as a hero who is respectfully viewed as opposed to being lynched.