Langston Hughes: The Only Colored Student In My Class

Hughes set a confident and bold tone in this poem because it sounds like he is demanding equality. In the poem, he starts by talking about how African Americans are discriminated against, then he states that tomorrow he will be eating with the whites and they will be ashamed of themselves for ever discriminating against blacks after the whites see their true beauty. Due to the tone, the speaker seems young and charismatic. The speaker of the poem also plays a major role on the perspective, because the speaker represents how Hughes felt about the subject. In the poem, the speaker is

Hughes's poem builds on top of Whitman’s poem in more ways than one. Every single person with their described job in Whitman’s poem was said to have been sung loud and strong as to what they were doing when working, meaning that they took pride in how they worked and what kind of work they did. With how there's so many types of people and jobs being talked about in Whitman’s poem, you would think it would include the lives of blacks and how they have dealt with all the racism and stuff at the time (later on too). Hughes’s poem is a type of add-on to Whitman’s poem in the way of including the whole of black people into the mix, with many lines in the poem stating things of which overall say that even if you’re black you should still be allowed to partake in things and be in an area without any prejudice towards your skin color.

During Hughes’ era, he experienced college as a black man in a group of white students. He was left out because he is black and he has similarities. For me, I was questioning on why I was hated by a group of students who were the same race as me. They told me that I 'm not black enough. I was confused and frustrated

In “Theme for English B” Langston Hughes dramatizes race and self-identity. Hughes is struggling to relate himself to his teacher and everyone around him, so he starts off by telling readers about his background such as his age and where he has lived. “I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston- Salem” (2). Through the first stanza of the poem we know that Hughes is living through a time where race is a big issue and not too many African American adolescents are in school like he is. He is learning more and more about himself by asking questions about the society he lives in and if and how he fits in it. He is trying to discover truths about his self-identity by comparing himself and his white teacher several times. “You are white- yet a

Langston Hughes is famous for his many great poems and was a very talented man. He wrote a poem in college called “Theme for English B”. In Langston Hughes’s poem, he uses imagery of racial differences and a bold tone to undermine the teacher’s authority. He also to expresses the universal idea that intolerance often comes out of individual assumption. Langston’s confusion of the topic of the paper causes him to write the entire paper about the paper.

During the early 1930s many black writers begin to produce works that helped to shape and define the Civil Rights movement. Among them was Langston Hughes whose poems and writing contributed directly to the rhetoric of the day and inspired many African-Americans, both in and out of the Civil Rights movement. Much of this grew out of what was called the Harlem Renaissance, which emerged during turbulent times for the world, the United States, and black Americans. World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 had left the world in disorder and stimulated anti-colonial movements throughout the third world. In America, twenty years of progressive reform ended with the red scare, race riots, and isolationism throughout 1919 and led to

Thesis statement: Hughes wrote this when Jim Crow laws were still imposing an bitter segregated society in the South. There were still lynchings of innocent African Americans, there was no Civil Rights Movement, there was no Civil Rights legislation yet, and Blacks couldn't eat at lunch counters in the South. Harlem, however, was not at all like the South in terms of blatant, legal segregation. However, racism was very much in place in many places in America. Blacks were second class citizens, their children attended schools that were ill-equipped, and the dreams of Black citizens were not being realized in this period.

Hughes also takes the view of culture but he examines it from the view of blacks that are not stuck in the ghetto but have stable backgrounds. Hughes takes the view that blacks are actually hindering themselves. He says that there is a huge obstacle standing in the way of every black person. He actually makes a reference about artist but it can be viewed as any black person. He says the obstacle is, “this urge within the race toward whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible.” (Hughes, Langston) His example is a poet. This poet subconsciously wants to be white because he feels it will make him a better poet. This poet comes from a strong background in the middle class. According to Hughes, they attend church; the father has a steady job; the mother works on occasion; and the children attend mixed schools. However, the problem comes with how the parents treat their children. The mother says things like, “Don’t be like niggers” when the children are bad. In turn the father says things like, “Look how well a white man does things.” So in this home and many others, black is not praised or celebrated it is taught to be ashamed of. They are taught to want to be white. It is staggering what blacks do to themselves because of this. Fist Hughes says the more predominant don’t

The upper-class blacks shunned the lower class viewing them as being “embarrassingly vulgar” (Dickinson 323). Overcoming African-American prejudice was a major focus in most of Hughes’ writing. For example, he wrote about the joys, sorrows and hopes of the black man in America (Dickinson 321). Not all of his writings were so encouraging however. Other themes Hughes wrote about include lynchings, rapes, discrimination, and Jim Crow Laws. He commented that when he felt bad, he wrote a great deal of poetry; when he was happy, he didn’t write any (Dickinson 321).

In Langston Hughes I, too. being a person of color comes with challenges both mentally and physically youre forced to over exceed in everything you do and say even if youre already great. (Line 18) I too am america. a sense to undertand who is just because the pigment of my skin is darker doesnt make him any less america as a caucasian person (lines 1,2, 3, 4, & 5)they send mt to eat in the kitchen when compnay comes but i laugh and eat well and grow strong mentally circumstances of such can cause a someone to feel hopeless, less of a person, and unwanted due to color of their ski. which leads to depressiona and mental issues as well as low self-esteem. We all are america, we all are people it doesnt matter if the color of our skin are

Langston Hughes was born during a time of blatant racism and discrimination. He was a voice for black America in the 1920s, and his poems have endured with a never-ending passion for justice and racial equality. His poems have a strong positive message, albeit his frustration for his country, which did not allow him to sit at the table of his white counterparts, as in “I, Too.” Hughes wanted to live equally among others, to feel an undeniable part of the free America he loved.

Modern and contemporary American writers, especially those in the African American, Asian American, Latino American, and Native American minority groups, have reflected in their fiction and poetry, America’s ongoing struggle to narrow the gap between the idealism and reality of the principles of equality stated in the Declaration of Independence by depicting the racial and cultural struggles - social, legal, economic - members of the minority groups endure, wherein the theme of injustice calls upon readers to reform American nativist attitudes and sentiments.

On February 1, 1902 James Mercer Langston Hughes was born to his parents James Hughes and Carrie Langston. His parents separated soon after his birth. His father went to Mexico and his mother moved around a lot. He was raised by his maternal grandmother until she died. Then he went to live with his mother. While with her they moved around but finally settled down in Cleveland.

My background as a tenacious student and a minority has allowed me to connect to the poem in ways that I could very much relate to. I have personally lived through the motions of life that he refers to in “Theme for English b”.Langston Hughes’s poem is more about the differences he knows other people see in him or rather on him, and what they are missing. By doing this, Hughes make it clear that the color of his skin plays a crucial role in the way that people think he is like. He finishes by boldly stating what he had been

Langston Hughes was the leading voice of African American people in his time, speaking through his poetry to represent blacks. His Influence through his poems are seen widely not just by blacks but by those who enjoy poetry in other races and social classes. Hughes poems, Harlem, The Negro speaks of rivers, Theme for English B, and Negro are great examples of his output for the racial inequality between the blacks and whites. The relationship between whites and blacks are rooted in America's history for the good and the bad. Hughes poems bring the history at large and present them in a proud manner. The injustice that blacks face because of their history of once being in bondage is something they are constantly reminded and ridiculed for but must overcome and bring to light that the thoughts of slavery and inequality will be a lesson and something to remember for a different future where that kind of prejudice is not found so widely.