Theme For English B Essay

“Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes follows a speaker’s search for what is true. As readers, we follow the speaker’s journey to figure out the answer to that question. What is true? Through the process of finding an answer, a prominent theme of the poem becomes identity. By using collective pronouns, which I define as “A word, frequently a noun meant to address or refer to a group or individuals whom all identify with that word” thus he appeals to multiple audiences and uses collective pronouns as audience dictation. Therefore, this poem suggests “you” is not definable by just one thing. “you” is complex a combination of many things and by addressing many things through collective pronouns as well as locations Hughes performs audience

The instructor and student are similar despite their difference in role and status, which is shown in the line “yet a part of me, as I am a part of you” (line 32). Here Hughes blurs the line which separates the two characters, suggesting that the speaker of the poem is more than just a “me” but, rather a compilation of all the others that “me” shares their life with. Additionally, by explicitly addressing a student and instructor Hughes performs audience diction, as he is using a collective pronoun therefore, referencing a group of people and creating a theme out of a potential

The student who is now established as the speaker, emphasis the racial aspect of his identity through repetition, which introduces race as a theme and is a form of audience dictation through the collective pronoun “colored”. The student knows he is colored yet, he becomes unsure of how his race affects his likes we see that in the lines “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.” (lines 25-28). Here the student is still searching for his identity and what makes him, him. Though is page will not be white, he states “it will be / a part of you instructor / You are white” (lines 30-32). As readers, if we keep this line in mind while reading the previous line “And let that page come out of you—” (line 4). It becomes clear that perhaps without the student realizing that the “you” the instructor speaks of is not as clear as you may want it to be. In an attempt to justify this the student writes “yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. / That’s American” (lines 32-33). In this line, the student finds a similarity that connects the to, being American. Explicitly addressing Americans is another one of Hughes’s attempts at audience diction, using that collective pronoun enables Americans to