Theme For English B Tone

Analysis of a Poem: “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes “Theme for English B,” by Langston Hughes, is a short poem that is centered on a young colored student whose instructor has asked him to write an essay about himself with the demand that it must be “true.” The speaker’s tone of voice throughout the poem shows the reader the struggle that a colored person has with identifying themselves on where they stand in a class room with a white instructor. With the author’s specific use of imagery and tone, Hughes builds up theme that two people may be seen as equal no matter what their ethnicity is.
Hughes use of imagery helps to portray a typical day in the student's life as he tries to make sense of this assignment. "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.” Through these lines the author creates specific imagery of where the student lives, his normal routine of getting home, and his every day experiences that …show more content…
He lists things like “I like to eat, sleep, drink and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life". In doing so the student tries to express to the reader, as well as his instructor, that being colored does not stop him from liking the same things as other races. However, this leads to his thought of wondering if the paper that he writes being seen as his skin color and not his knowledge. The student wonders if his race might have an influence on his writing and whether his instructor will be able to understand him because he is not colored but white. This helps the reader sympathize the student because he feels like an outsider, which many of us encounter time to time in real life and in an educational