Analysis Of Langston Hughes Theme For English B

Langston Hughes is the author and speaker in the poem “Theme for English B.” Hughes uses the title of his poem to question the task given to him in English class. The task was simply to “Go home and write/a page.” The class instructor challenges Hughes to write the “truth.” Instead of making the title more specific to give us a better understanding of the poem, or what Hughes writes his one page about, he simply titles it “Theme for English B.” Hughes uses the title to tell us that he created his own theme for the assignment because the instructor directions were unclear.
The poem begins with instructions to the task. The instructor tells Hughes the paper should “Come out of you/ Then, it will be the truth.” Hughes writes in the first line of the first stanza “I wonder if it’s that simple?” I believe he is questioning the “truth.” After this line Hughes begins to describe his …show more content…
Hughes begins the stanza with his “likes.” He lists basic necessities for living saying that he is no different than any other person. He uses the as a way to ask, does race really effect a person’s opinion on things. Hughes writes “I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like/the same thing other folks like who are other races." After Hughes had us thinking that race contributed to someone’s opinions on the “truth,’ he counters this by telling us how people are alike. Since the “page comes from you,” Hughes asks if the paper should be the color of his skin or can it be white. I feel as though this was Hughes making a smart remark about the instructor’s task, obviously the paper has to be white. Even though society, the assignment, and everything else is disposed towards the instructor’s race, Hughes is trying to make the point that they are similar. He say “you are white-/yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. / That’s American.” By adding American in the poem he gives a common ground just like he did when writing “I hear New York,