Theme For English B Summary

The division between whites and blacks was clearly prevalent and the United States of America was a racially discriminatory society reinforced by its racist laws. Hughes took the initiative to speak his mind via poetry, resulting in his piece “I, Too”. In this poem, Hughes clearly signifies one thing: Just because his skin color is different from whites, does not mean that they get to sing the National Anthem louder. Arguing that all American citizens are the same, disregarding their skin color, Hughes applies in this poem a master-slave relationship. The assumed white master shows disrespect to his servant by sending him away whenever visitors come over, because he is ordered to eat secluded from the company. However he seems to not be faze by this and actually finds it funny, supported by “But I laugh” (5). Furthermore, not only does he find amusement in this unpleasant situation, but the isolation has a positive effect on him “And grow strong” (7), implying that even though he submits to his master, his spirit will not be diminished.

Langston Hughes was known for his poems of black activity in America since the 1920’s to the 1960’s, which was the time of the Harlem Renaissance. “My writing has been largely concerned with the depicting of Negro life in America.” Throughout Langston’s life he has seen and experienced racism. He used these experiences to give him ideas of things he could write about. Back then white people were the majority in Harlem, but then once the blacks started to come they dispersed. “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too.” Langston knew that blacks should express themselves no matter what color they are and not be ashamed of it. Some white people may like that they are expressing themselves, on the other hand, some white people may not accept that the

My response to Langston Hughes ' in Theme for English B is we have a variety of interests that are relatable to both of us. We encountered and conquered the greatest battles in our lives. We confronted segregation and rejection in view of the color of our skin and identity. After reading his poem, I was reminded of how I experienced discrimination and rejection throughout public school and I was labeled an outsider. I was discriminated and rejected not only just the color of my skin, it’s because of my disability. Langston Hughes’ Theme for English B made me feel the same way at public school. I wonder, precisely who am I? Where do I fit on this Earth? Indeed, these are a couple of questions that Hughes struggles with, aside from the world in which he was posing these questions. I was lost, but now I found my identity and build great character. My identity, which includes my race, disability, and my values are either accepted or not in this broken world. These three things affect how I read Langston Hughes’ poem because I was faced with deep ambivalence toward the prevailing society, but now I feel that I’m open and positive about society and my place in it.

Langston Hughes was an African American poet, social activist, novelist, and playwright. His works are still studies, read, and, in terms of his poems and plays, performed. He is best known for being a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. Within his works, he depicted black America in manners that told the truth about the culture, music, and language of his people. Besides his many notable poems, plays, and novels, Hughes also wrote essays such as The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain which Hughes gives insight into the minds of middle-class and upper-class Negroes. Prior to reading this essay, I never heard of, nor did I know, Langston Hughes composed essays, much less an essay that outwardly depicts aspects of life that most are accustomed to and see nothing wrong with. The Negro and the Racial Mountain formulated this view that Langston Hughes was more than a poet who wrote about jazz music as he is depicted within grade school textbooks, but instead, a man who had a great passion for the African American race to develop a love for themselves and for non-African American audiences to begin to understand how the African American race can be strong and creative despite struggles that may be occur. There is a possibility that this essay, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain, is not more commonly known because it has the ability to make the reader uncomfortable, no matter if he is an African American or white. For the African American, one can find himself reflecting back

In “Theme for English B” Langston Hughes dramatizes race and self-identity. Hughes is struggling to relate himself to his teacher and everyone around him, so he starts off by telling readers about his background such as his age and where he has lived. “I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston- Salem” (2). Through the first stanza of the poem we know that Hughes is living through a time where race is a big issue and not too many African American adolescents are in school like he is. He is learning more and more about himself by asking questions about the society he lives in and if and how he fits in it. He is trying to discover truths about his self-identity by comparing himself and his white teacher several times. “You are white- yet a

Both Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” and Langston Hughes’ “Theme for English B” depicts the way society is so stereotypical to a person based on race, gender, sexual preference, cultures, religions, and how some people will never understand a person’s plights because they don’t come from the same environment.

Continuing his poem, Hughes delves even more into the idea of truth. “I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like/ the same things other folks like who are other races” (“Theme B” 25-26). The lines are relatively easy to understand. There is the notion that the difference in race changes what you can or can’t like, which is an ignorant thought. Race has nothing to do with your likes or dislikes. The speaker of the poem mentions his color, yet again, and questions why it should matter. Towards the end of the poem Hughes leaves the reader with something to think about:

During the 1920s, black literature and culture exploded in a movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, which at its forefront directly challenged white stereotypes that ‘defined’ black perception in society. Thus, one major focus during this movement was to recreate and define a new identity for black Americans through the lens of art. Two poets attempted such a feat and, in their works, argued for an identity centered on the authentic roots and customs of African-American culture. As evidenced by “I, too,” “Theme for English B,” and “The Melting Pot,” Hughes and Randall assert that black racial identity should not be sequestered, but instead should be embraced in society.

What i feel like he mean by the poem is, the fact that h is from Winsto-Salem and go’s to a all white school called Harlem. Them things doesn't make him no different then the next person, or the fact that he is the only black man in his class. He want the teacher to see him for him no matter the color, age, or his personality. And so he say “ does it make his paper any different from yours

Hughes feels like his being characterized into one common African-American standard instead of his individual identity, this part of the poem Hughes describes the things he likes and what interest him expressing his true identity stating that just because his colored doesn't make him like the same stuff as other. Hughes identifies himself with Harlem by emphasizing the sound and the view of the city, claiming to hear Harlem, that Harlem is part of him is who he is.He uses a rhetorical question asking since he is colored does that make his paper colored or less important than others. I feel the same I too struggle to find my identity in myself because being a young African-American in America is hard.People expect you to act a certain way, you are put into this category.I always changed my personality in order to make friends or to appear a certain way, sometimes I feel like I'm not important and other times am at the top of the world. At the moment am trying to find something that I can identify with that I can be like this is me, we are part of each other, I feel and hear just like Hughes found himself in Harlem.

Segregation was not received well by African Americans of the time, and a part of the reception was reflected in his poem Theme for English B. In Theme for English B, Langston talks about how he was the only black man in his college class and was given an assignment to “write a page tonight”(Hughes 1), and that it should reflect his life saying to, “let that page come out of you - Then it will be true”(Hughes 2). In the paper that he writes, he explains how he likes and has the same hobbies as his,white, professor although the color of their skin is different saying “I guess thing being colored doesn’t make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races.” (Hughes 2). He also addresses that he and his proffesor were very disimilar and did not have a companionable relationship, they were a part of each other: “yet a part of me as I am part of you. Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me. Nor do I often want to be a an part of you. [but we are]” (Hughes 3). Theme for English B is about how Langston Hughes and his professor, despite their physical differences, are both human and can learn and coexist with one

Many writers during the Harlem Renaissance have used their writing to speak with a unified voice. But there were many African American writers and critics from the Harlem Renaissance that were very brutal and strict on the way that Langston Hughes depicted black life in the time era that viewed as unnecessarily exposing the “dirt” in their lives. Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem” illustrates an image of human response to an unresolved dream. In “Harlem” Langston Hughes uses diction and stanza form to demonstrate how “dreams deferred” can discourage and antagonize the human

It appears throughout the poem, that he is able to clearly see the differences and similarities of himself and his classmates. The speaker states, “I am the only colored student in my class” (Hughes 10) as he identifies as the challenged minority. He then begins showing the similarities he has with his instructor and classmates in the sixth stanza, “Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love./I like to work, read, learn, and understand life” ( 21-22). He says that the color of his skin does not make a difference in everyday living, the music he listens too or the type of literature that interests him. In the following stanza he talks about how he is just like everyone else, despite his skin color.

Published in 1949, Langston Hughes’s “Theme for English B” is about a young African American completing a homework assignment. In doing so, he contemplates his life, his status, and the difficulties that come with being “the only colored student in [his] class” (Hughes, 10). Living in the earliest years of the American Civil Rights Movement, our narrator understands that to be considered “truly American,” one must be Caucasian. Yet, he also understands that the world in which he lives and matures is in a state of rebellion and tumult; one that, he hopes, will itself mature into a place of peace and acceptance. His ideas, and the ideas of the poem, reflect a growing desire for societal change, which many up-and-coming African Americans yearned

The theme of double consciousness pervades the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. Reasons for expressing double-consciousness stem from historical, cultural, and psychological realities facing African-Americans realities that continue to define the sociocultural landscape in the United States. In Countee Cullen's poem "Heritage," the opening line is "What is Africa to me?" The narrator ponders what it means to be of African heritage, especially given the astounding number of generations separating ancestral ties from life in twentieth century America. Moreover, slavery tore apart families and communities, rendering African identity into a fragmented entity and African-American identity even more inchoate. The Harlem Renaissance represented a revolutionary shift in the way that the sons, grandsons, daughters, and granddaughters of slaves begun to conceptualize the African-American culture. African-American identity is naturally one of double- or even multiple-consciousness, and this consciousness is conveyed throughout the literature of the Harlem Renaissance.