Postcolonialism is a critical approach in literary studies that deals with the experience of “exclusion, denigration, and resistance under colonial control” (Waugh 340). It deals with the reaction caused by colonialism, that is, the taking and expansion of colonies by people from another colony. In essence, postcolonialism is concerned with the ways in which race, identity, culture, and ethnicity are represented after an area has been colonized. Postcolonialism pays particular attention to the response of the oppressed, which can be both radical and subtle. Claude McKay, a Jamaican-American poet, wrote “America” during the Harlem Renaissance, and although it was before the postcolonial movement, it exemplifies many postcolonial ideas. “America” deals heavily with the dual ideas of love and hate. In the first four lines of the poem, the narrator shows his extreme disgust for America. But even though he hates her, he is also forced to depend on her. In the first line, the narrator states, “Though she feeds me bitter bread,” which tells the reader that he relies on America for food and sustenance. It also plays on the idea of ​​America's "mother role": nurturing a child who depends on her to live. We are therefore led to believe that the narrator recognizes that America keeps him alive, even if it does so bitterly. He goes on to write, “And sinks his tiger tooth into my throat, / Stealing the breath of life, I will confess” (lines 2-3). Here, readers should note how the narrator feels that America is stealing his life and draining his spirit. In an era when America was supposed to provide freedom and equality to black people, its culture and background are instead robbed from the center of the paper, colonial writers and critics find ways to respond to the colonial oppressor by exploiting the struggles over meaning that take place within the texts of empire itself… ridicule and refute the way in which they themselves have been represented. Furthermore, and fundamentally, in doing so they express their own subjectivity, their own perception of the world. In “America,” McKay did just that. He writes openly and honestly about his struggles, the struggles faced by most black people during this time. He describes the double consciousness and in-betweenness he experiences being a hyphenated American. He is also not afraid to stand back, to use America's strength to empower him to fight this hatred. Although the poem ends on a more melancholy note, with America's future looking bleak, McKay shows that, even then, there is still a little hope for the future..