Langston Hughes

Since the beginning of history, Black Americans have experienced discrimination and used poetry, music, and plays to create their existence during the Harlem Renaissance era. In contrast to college academic life today, Langston Hughes deals with equality issues originating from the 1920s and uses himself as a persona to the main characters. In the narrative poem, “Theme for English B,” written by Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes, a student is writing a paper for his college English B class. Hughes starts the poem off about the student taking a stroll home after his teacher assigns a one page paper for his college English class about himself. In this class, the student struggles with the fact that he is the only black student. The student

In the poem, there is a social gap from the city and the student’s lifestyle. The speaker thoroughly describes himself and where he resides, Harlem. Going to a college “on the hill above Harlem” symbolizes the social status of blacks within the troubling times, in other words white people still were “above” the blacks to a certain extent. The student has individual struggles with his experience in class, moreover with himself. In the first stanza, Hughes recognizes that the speaker is the only black person in a mass of white people bluntly saying, “I am the only colored student in my class” (Hughes 389). Noting this point, the speaker burdens his conscience independently and in society to do well not only for his future, but for African Americans around the world that are not able. The poem written also demonstrates segregation between the professor and him. Hughes reviews the challenges that the student foresees emphasizing the freedom the professor has because he is “older and somewhat free” (Hughes 390). Based on college discrimination back then compared to today, my college experience is what the American Dream is thought to be. Classrooms are integrated more than ever, people have equal opportunities, and people respect diversity whether or not they have different views from someone else. Opportunities are given to people who would like to attend college by applying for financial

Identity is shown within lines 11-15 where author, Frank E. Perez talks about the student’s place to work, The Harlem Y. Perez claims where a student does their writing process: this place could dictate the effect a student’s writing. Perez states, “The poem may be used as the basis for discussing how being in a familiar, comfortable, and specific place facilitates the writing process” (345). “Theme for English B” and my college courses are similar due to the fact that I am constantly trying to figure out my future and who I want to be. Everyone in the class has something in common with each other, whether it is the class their in. Though the speaker feels different compared to his classmates, both races are identified as “American,” regardless of color and could actually learn from each other