Free Essays on Theme For English B

Theme for English B The instructor said, Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you Then, it will be true. I wonder if it's that simple? I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. I went to school there, then Durham, then here to this college on the hill above Harlem. I am the only colored student in my class. The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem, through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas, Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y, the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator up to my room, sit down, and write this page: It's not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you: hear you, hear mewe twoyou, me, talk on this page. (I hear New York, too.) Mewho? 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 recordsBessie, 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. But it will be a part of you, instructor. You are white yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. That's American. Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me. Nor do I often want to be a part of you. But we are, that's true! As I learn from you, I guess you learn from me although you're olderand white and somewhat more free. This is my page for English B. In order to better analyze this poem, it is necessary to know a little about the author because his work is pretty much close to his life and own experiences. James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was a small child, and his father moved to Mexico. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirt... Free Essays on Theme For English B Free Essays on Theme For English B Theme for English B The instructor said, Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you Then, it will be true. I wonder if it's that simple? I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. I went to school there, then Durham, then here to this college on the hill above Harlem. I am the only colored student in my class. The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem, through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas, Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y, the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator up to my room, sit down, and write this page: It's not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you: hear you, hear mewe twoyou, me, talk on this page. (I hear New York, too.) Mewho? 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 recordsBessie, 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. But it will be a part of you, instructor. You are white yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. That's American. Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me. Nor do I often want to be a part of you. But we are, that's true! As I learn from you, I guess you learn from me although you're olderand white and somewhat more free. This is my page for English B. In order to better analyze this poem, it is necessary to know a little about the author because his work is pretty much close to his life and own experiences. James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was a small child, and his father moved to Mexico. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirt... Free Essays on Theme For English B Theme for English B â€Å"Theme for English B† is a poem by Langston Hughes in which a black student in a predominantly white college takes a seemingly simple assignment as an opportunity to inspect the complicated issue of race relations in America. The assignment instructs: Go home and write A page tonight. And let that page come out of you- Then, it will be true. (2-5) In his response to the assignment Hughes points out that we are often reluctant to admit that our similarities are more common and occur more often than our differences. Even though he is black and perhaps feels out of place in a white school, he obviously is very talented or he wouldn’t be in such a prestigious establishment. The poem takes place at his desk in his home and follows his train of thought to the end, where he decides that his brainstorming is as honest an opinion as he was ever going to get. Whereupon he decides to turn in his brainstorm as his response to the assignment. Langston Hughes provides plenty of information about himself in the first half of the poem, for example, that he was â€Å"born in Winston Salem† (7) and his school history first Durham, then Columbia University. He tells us that he was the only â€Å"colored student in my class†, Then he takes us on his journey home where from that prestigious establishment of Columbia he returns to Harlem through a park, crosses St. Nicholas Ave. where he arrives at the Harlem Branch Y takes the elevator and sits in his room. In the second half of the poem he inspects the similarities between himself as a black man and the instructor as a white man. The interesting aspect of this poem is how Hughes perceives and feels about this color difference and reflects on the difficulties in analyzing those differences, â€Å"It is not easy to know what is true for you or me† (16). First what brings these outwardly different people together? What do they have in common? Langston points out that ...