Looking Through the Lens of Theme for English B Despite the efforts of many, all human beings visualize the world through a lens of world experiences. This lens is often referred to as a person’s worldview. In a controlled environment, readers use a work of literature as their lens to help with the analyzing of another work. Altering the worldview of the reader opens opportunities for new ideas and understandings. When analyzing The Cave by Plato, Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, and On Communication by David Bohm through the lens of the poem Theme for English B by Langston Hughes, readers’ eyes are opened to new perspectives. The poem Theme for English B helps the reader of The Cave to see how identity can be misconstrued
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Hughes writes in stream of consciousness, a form of free verse, in order to convey a feeling of “wandering thoughts” (Hughes, 1996, p. viii). In the process of writing the poem Theme for English B Langston Hughes wrote in stream of consciousness, revealing a young black man’s private thoughts towards an English class. The speaker’s thoughts include unintentional metaphors to respond to his instructor’s assignment. Langston Hughes’ poem mirrors the cognitive processes analyzed in Metaphors We Live By because the speaker in the poem is using his everyday thought patterns to internalize his emotions. The speaker of the poem could likely be unaware of his use of the metaphor “So will my page be colored that I write? Being me, it will not be white” (Hughes, 28). This is interpreted that the paper has a white racial connotation and that the speaker refuses to “whitewash” his thoughts onto paper. Metaphors We Live By is a deeper explanation of what is happening to the speaker in the poem, “Our conceptual system is not something we are normally aware of. In most of the little things we do every day, we simply think and act more or less automatically along certain lines. Just in what these lines are is by no means obvious” (Lakoff and Johnson, 3). Langston Hughes’ poem allows the reader of The Metaphors We Live By to have a literary example of the cognitive thought …show more content…
For example, the article On Communication discusses the skill of listening and how scarcely true listening occurs. The speaker in the poem considers that the instructor and himself hear each other, but he communicates emotions that he is not being listened to due to prejudice and bias towards white students. Thus, looking at the article On Communication through the lens of the poem, the reader is already familiar with the problem of authentic listening. On Communication mentions that often the problem is that the prejudiced person is convinced they are already listening to the person they are prejudiced against (Bohm, 11). Therefore, the prejudiced person blames the person that they are prejudiced towards for not listening, however realistically; the prejudiced person is not listening because they are biased (Bohm, 11). The situation in the poem between the instructor and the speaker clearly illustrates inauthentic listening, a concern of On Communication, making it a perfect resource to have read before the
Hughes writes in stream of consciousness, a form of free verse, in order to convey a feeling of “wandering thoughts” (Hughes, 1996, p. viii). In the process of writing the poem Theme for English B Langston Hughes wrote in stream of consciousness, revealing a young black man’s private thoughts towards an English class. The speaker’s thoughts include unintentional metaphors to respond to his instructor’s assignment. Langston Hughes’ poem mirrors the cognitive processes analyzed in Metaphors We Live By because the speaker in the poem is using his everyday thought patterns to internalize his emotions. The speaker of the poem could likely be unaware of his use of the metaphor “So will my page be colored that I write? Being me, it will not be white” (Hughes, 28). This is interpreted that the paper has a white racial connotation and that the speaker refuses to “whitewash” his thoughts onto paper. Metaphors We Live By is a deeper explanation of what is happening to the speaker in the poem, “Our conceptual system is not something we are normally aware of. In most of the little things we do every day, we simply think and act more or less automatically along certain lines. Just in what these lines are is by no means obvious” (Lakoff and Johnson, 3). Langston Hughes’ poem allows the reader of The Metaphors We Live By to have a literary example of the cognitive thought …show more content…
For example, the article On Communication discusses the skill of listening and how scarcely true listening occurs. The speaker in the poem considers that the instructor and himself hear each other, but he communicates emotions that he is not being listened to due to prejudice and bias towards white students. Thus, looking at the article On Communication through the lens of the poem, the reader is already familiar with the problem of authentic listening. On Communication mentions that often the problem is that the prejudiced person is convinced they are already listening to the person they are prejudiced against (Bohm, 11). Therefore, the prejudiced person blames the person that they are prejudiced towards for not listening, however realistically; the prejudiced person is not listening because they are biased (Bohm, 11). The situation in the poem between the instructor and the speaker clearly illustrates inauthentic listening, a concern of On Communication, making it a perfect resource to have read before the