Analysis of Themes for English B Poem of Langston Hughes - Research Paper Example

Themes for English B The poem’s ‘Themes for English B’ is a clear suggestion that there are various grades of English language. This is an indication that there could be level s of English such as A, B, C or any other categorization as suggested by the title of the poem ‘Themes for English B’. These grades of English, deductively, associate with specific social classes of people as depicted in the poem. Grade A is associated with the upper class probably the whites and grade B referring to the lower class probably the blacks. The above motioned trend is further heightened in the first lines of the poem when the instructor requests that they write a page which will only be true if it comes from their minds. The instructor for that matter is being too subjective when he uses the criteria of truth and originality of the work of the learners to grade them. He insists that it has to be from them or mind. This is an emphasis of the essence of originality. In a nutshell, the poem is satirizing the idea of grading system of persons using truth and originality as the parameters. It obvious that such grading is not objective but rather very subjective. Trying to marry this idea to what the title implies, the poem is thus preaching the segregation of the white to the blacks. The whites are considered the original and true inhabitants of the land and speakers of the English language (Grade A) The persona suggests that he/she only twenty two and has been there since childhood, learned there from childhood to date thus cannot be able to undertake the task of coming up with a page that will clearly distinguish what is true and original. He instead suffers from the crisis identity due to his narrow view of the world. The persona compares his age to the elderly and goes on to mention that he is the only colored among the group which also implies some level of inequality and segregation based on their color. This could be a suggestion that colored people are not allowed equal chance to school as it is the case with the white .at higher level, this can be related to the age of the stay of the native white to the land and the colored who are probably not natives there but just happen to be there by historical accident. The steps mentioned in the poem which the person has to climb are another significant suggestion or implication of the poem. That the personal lives in a low land and his counterparts, those who are not colored could be living on the hills. This can be compared to the social ladders which in other words tell us that those who are in the upper classes live in the hills and therefore highly placed in the society .this cold also serve as the best reason the persona is the only colored student in the whole cohort. It is not easy for one to climb the social ladder to join others. The poem posits that it is not easy for one especially at the age of twenty two to tell what is true for one and what is original. The persona goes on to mention some of the basic needs for life to be what he like s and these to him seems to be the most original and true. Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life. I like a pipe for a Christmas present, or records—Bessie, bop, or Bach. I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races. So will my page be colored that I write? Being me, it will not be white. If that is the case, and basic needs being common to all human beings, then all human beings are equal and no one is more equal than the other .that is why the persona finds it difficult to tell the difference and that what he writes on the paper cannot be colored and being what he is is not white. Therefore, that means that all humans are equal despite their color. The persona claims that being colored does not stop him from liking things liked by other folks who are white .he argues that what he writes on the paper is not different from what the whites write and no one can even tell that what has been written by the white or by the black. This is an implication that all races are equal despite their color. Furthermore, the persona says that the assignment which is actually originally his is part of the instructor since that is his demand and instructions therefore making them part of each other. This is just to bring the point home that the instructor who is white is no different from the persona student who is colored. But it will be A part of you, instructor. You are white— Yet a part of me, as I am a part of you The poem mentions that sometimes the instructor does not want to be like him neither does he perhaps wants to be like the instructor but they are .and that he has learned that from the instructor and is hopeful that the instructor has also equally learned from him .this another way of informing the audience of the poem that all people are indeed equal and same whether black or white, colored or not colored. The persona, at the end of the poem remarks that the instructor is probably freer. This is might be because the instructor is white and is in his native land unlike the person who a merely aged enough and more badly, he is colored. The use of rhetorical questions in the poem can’t go unmentioned .the poet has achieved a lot of meaning form the use of such rhetorical questions as, ‘Me-who?’ ‘So will my page be colored that I write?’ This technique has been used to emphasize the fact that all people are equal and same regardless of their color and whether they are black or white. Work Cited Hughes, Langston. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (Vintage Classics). New York: Vintage, 1995. Print. . Read More