Hogs (symbol)
The speaker's simile "like hogs" invokes animals trapped and led to the slaughter, and the comparison to pigs invokes all the connotations of pigs as dirty, fat, and dull to suggest a kind of degraded state. However, since "hog" often refers specifically to a castrated male pig, the word also takes on a more specific resonance of emasculation. Indeed, the speaker's only other use of "like" in the poem is in the simile "like men," which creates a direct comparison between these symbolic states. If hogs suggest an "inglorious," shameful state that is weak and subhuman, "men" suggests not just humanity in general but specifically the traditional ideal of "being a man." In urging his allies to fight, the speaker encourages them to live up to this conception of masculinity, dying in a manner worthy of "men" so that—unlike hogs—they will be remembered after they are gone.
Dogs (symbol)
Running through the poem is a characterization of the enemy as non-human (and inhumane). While McKay subtly shifts the comparison as the poem continues—first dogs, then monsters, then the more neutral "foe," and then finally "pack"—the implication of a bloodthirsty savage mass remains constant throughout. While the dogs clearly symbolize the aggressive and predatory nature of the enemy, this extended metaphor also serves just as importantly as a technique of dehumanization. If we interpret the speaker as a black man and his allies as African Americans facing dehumanization and violence from whites, then these nonhuman descriptions turn the tables on their racist foe, showing that it is in fact the enemy who is not fully human.
Death (motif)
References to death and violence are clearly the most central aspect of the poem, with variations of "die" appearing six times and words like "murderous," "grave," and shed "blood" all creating a sense of pervasive and impending death. The very basis of the poem itself is the speaker's acknowledgment of death, and he urges his allies to respond to it in a way that gives death meaning. Despite the imminence of death, the speaker implicitly draws distinctions between different kinds of death and between legitimate and illegitimate violence. Death for a worthy cause, he suggests, is a "defiance" that is worthy of glory, and the act of delivering a "deathblow" to the enemy will allow the dead to live on in glory after they are gone. While the speaker himself is far from bloodthirsty, seeing life as "precious" and implicitly lamenting the state of things that means they have to die, he desires to face death head-on and urges his allies to do the same.
Good vs. Evil Conflict (allegory)
The poem's creation of an "us versus them," Manichean conflict has led to it being interpreted in a number of different ways throughout the years. Readers have understood the poem in terms of racial violence, in terms of laborers versus capitalists, in terms of the two sides in World War II, and in many other capacities. The poem's grand, elevated diction and rousing call to arms have given it a universal appeal, and McKay's decision not to describe the particulars of the speaker, his allies, and the "common foe" have allowed the poem to function allegorically for its countless readers across the world.
