Our author, Hughes, I believe is trying to find his place, as the only ‘colored’, with fear leaking out silently of being judged only as such, and as a person, being unequal, if not simply misunderstood.
I believe our author has the conscious though that life isn’t as easy as the instructor has portrayed, though having a strong desire for such a utopia. He starts with the basics of who he is with age, color and location. He describes his trip home, in its most simplistic nature, almost as if trying to convince himself ‘it is that simple’. Whether black or white, it would be the same trip home, it would be the same streets, same elevator, and the same work area to sit down to; he questions himself then if he being the only ‘black’ really matters. …show more content…
He references I feel, see, and hear, within Harlem; it is as if the social setting, ‘colored’ community is talking to him, influencing his thoughts and writings. He snaps himself out of this racial trance, referencing New York, as if he is not going to assist his readers to see him as only ‘black’.
He compares in his mind the differences between white and black; the daily rituals, the habits, and the likes. All are not-race related, right, he asks his conscious. He is fighting to find a common ground to work from; it is though he himself views or sees himself as a lesser that needs to measure up to another’s view of him.
Then he finds it; he and the instructor are both Americans. He draws on the pretense that what he does affects the instructor, just as the instructor influences him and his thoughts and actions. This gives him the power he needs in his mind to move forward, the common ground to shake off the ‘only black’ in the class that is bogging him
I believe our author has the conscious though that life isn’t as easy as the instructor has portrayed, though having a strong desire for such a utopia. He starts with the basics of who he is with age, color and location. He describes his trip home, in its most simplistic nature, almost as if trying to convince himself ‘it is that simple’. Whether black or white, it would be the same trip home, it would be the same streets, same elevator, and the same work area to sit down to; he questions himself then if he being the only ‘black’ really matters. …show more content…
He references I feel, see, and hear, within Harlem; it is as if the social setting, ‘colored’ community is talking to him, influencing his thoughts and writings. He snaps himself out of this racial trance, referencing New York, as if he is not going to assist his readers to see him as only ‘black’.
He compares in his mind the differences between white and black; the daily rituals, the habits, and the likes. All are not-race related, right, he asks his conscious. He is fighting to find a common ground to work from; it is though he himself views or sees himself as a lesser that needs to measure up to another’s view of him.
Then he finds it; he and the instructor are both Americans. He draws on the pretense that what he does affects the instructor, just as the instructor influences him and his thoughts and actions. This gives him the power he needs in his mind to move forward, the common ground to shake off the ‘only black’ in the class that is bogging him