Langston Hughes’s “Theme for English B”
...niversity, Hughes was instructed by his teacher to “Go home and write / A page tonight. / And let that page come out of you- / Then, it will be true” (2-5). Instead of writing a essay in the right format as instructed by the teacher, Hughes decided to write a poem titled “Theme for English B.” This poem would not be published until 1949, many years after it was first written in the early 1920s. The poem is the main representation of Hughes’s feelings, beliefs, and how the word “colored” functions for Hughes as a badge of inferiority placed on him by white people. Some of the feeling represented in this poem would be discomfort and also pride. Some examples of when Hughes shows the reader how he feels discomfort is when he states “I am twenty-two, colored” (7) and also “I am the only colored student in my class” (10). By writing these two lines, Hughes is informing the audience how he cannot belong or be part of the class, due to the fact of him being black. These two lines also emphasize Hughes’s feelings of discomfort to not having anyone to relate to. Just as Hughes felt as an outsider, there have been many times when I felt the same. I may not have been the same color as him, but I have been in situation where I transferred a new town to a new school where I did not know anyone. During that period of time when Hughes wrote the poem, African Americans did not have many privileges. Many were not given the right to attend school and get an education. They did not even have the right to vote in the presidential elections. However, Hughes’s works were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. In the following years, African American would receive more rights and become free. For example they were given the right to vote in 1965. In “Theme for English B,” Hughes tries to close the gap between himself and his teacher by using sounds from the street life in Harlem. Such as; jazz, bebop, and blues. Some sounds and rhythms I would choose to describe my...