Theme for English B – Critical Analysis

Theme for English B – Critical Analysis

Introduction:

Langston Hughes was a Harlem Renaissance poet and one of the most prominent voices in American poetry of the 20^th century. Through the poem “Theme for English B” Hughes communicates his intense paroxysm of pain and angst experienced by the black immigrants in the process of being ‘Americanised’ into the mainstream culture. By doing so, he not only challenges the concept of race and racism in America, but also the fluidity of the American identity, which is a malady, representative of the American experience in toto. He has been eulogised as a cultural icon, ‘a man lionized and venerated as the black poet laureate of the twentieth century’.

Synopsis of the Poem:

The poem discusses the predicament of the speaker, a young adult of 19 years, and the ‘only colored student’ in his English class. The teacher asks the class to “Go home and write a page that will come out of you – then it will be true’. As the only colored student in his class, he is in a double bind: he is not sure whether to write like an English student, by assuming a false persona, or to be true to his cultural heritage and ethnic affiliations, while writing the assignment. Truth for him, is a subject matter of consternation and contention, and by the end of the assignment, he has figured out for himself what is true in life!

Ethnicity and Identity:

Ethnicity refers to the identification of a particular group ‘based on a perceived cultural distinctiveness’ that makes the group into a people. This distinctiveness is believed to be

expressed in language, music, values, art, styles, literatures, family life, religion, ritual, food, naming, public life, and material culture’. Hence, leaders, writers, lyricists and artists of the Harlem Renaissance were encouraged to a new identity – pride in their ethnic identity – that emphasised the influence of African native writing, art and their customs and practices.  

 In the first part of the poem, the speaker emphasises on the ethnic barriers that separate him and that ostracise him from the other white classmates as well as from his professor. Being the lone colored student in his class, the speaker stresses upon the problems he encounters because of this separation – which is both physical as well as emotional. Moreover, the speaker also stresses upon his arduous journey in traversing a long distance to come to his college which is located on the hill above Harlem. Ethnic segregation in his classroom, dominated by whites, makes the white students and the white professor ‘more free’ than him. Hence, the speaker suggests that there is a glass ceiling for colored students like him in American society, which limits their freedom, their artistic endeavours and their survival in society.

Shadow Lines and Artificial Boundaries:

The speaker of the poem does not succumb to the policy of racial segregation and ethnic rejection of the Blacks, practised by the Whites in America. He justifies the commonality amongst peoples of different races as the intermediary that unites people. Everyday habits and emotions like feeling, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, drinking, loving, working, reading, learning, and understanding life, etc are some of the traits that are common to all human beings, although they may be colored or white.

“I guess being colored doesn’t make me NOT like the same things other folks like who are other races”, says the colored speaker.

The Speaker’s Views on American Identity:

According to the speaker, the persona of the poem, although he is colored and different from his classmates and from his professor, yet, as Americans, they share common goals and aspirations. America, according to him, is the place where colors of various races mix together, and thereby a mixing of knowledge and culture is achieved.

“You are white – Yet a part of me, as I am a part of you – that’s American.”

Hence, differences in race, colour, gender, culture etc are all subsumed in the larger canvass of the larger American identity. Appreciating this larger American identity not only helps in unity amongst cultures, resulting in the melting pot, but also helps in celebrating the diversity, richness and aura of the various cultures. By doing so, it is easy to discover the concept of truth, from the perspective of each ethnic group or cultural group and thereby extol what the American identity professes to stand for.

Conclusion:

In his concluding stanza, Hughes gives a very inspiring message to the reader: whatever be the skin color or ethnicity of two people, there is always a possibility of learning something from each other. And America is one such place where such a unification of cultures remains a possibility. Thus the poem brings out the speaker’s struggle for identity and his tryst with the concept of truth, which finally he achieves by the two-fold inspiration: his unique identity as a Black American and the motivation of the Harlem Renaissance.

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