Analysis of Discrimination in Langston Hughes' 'Theme for English B'

This essay provides an analysis of Langston Hughes' poem "Theme for English B", focusing on the narrator's experience with discrimination. The essay explores how the narrator, a young Black man, grapples with racial prejudice and identity within the context of a college assignment. It examines the narrator's feelings of alienation and the challenges of self-expression in a predominantly white environment, highlighting the subtle yet pervasive forms of discrimination. The essay references the poem's key themes, such as the narrator's awareness of his 'colored' identity, his relationship with his instructor, and his reflections on his place in society. The analysis also touches upon the broader implications of racism within the American context, illustrating how Hughes' poem serves as a powerful commentary on the experiences of African Americans during the time. The essay concludes by emphasizing the poem's message of urging readers to live without any forms of racism and discrimination and live peacefully with each other in the world.

Running head: LANGSTON HUGHES AND THE DISCRIMMINATION OF THE BLACKS
Langston Hughes and the Discrimination of the Blacks
Name of the Author
Name of the University
Author Note

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The poem “Theme for English B” is a poem written by the author Langston Hughes
which tells the readers about the narrator of the poem being discriminated by his college
professor. The narrator of the poem is described to be a young black man who is trying to
find out the meaning of his life by giving an English assignment. The reader finds in the
poem that the instructor in the poem asks the narrator to go home and bring a two page write
up about himself and his life. The poem deals with various ways in which the author feels
that he is being discriminated by the instructor of the class.
The purpose of the essay is to describe how the author understands that he is
being discriminated against and how would his experience be inside a class full of white
people.
In the poem, the readers find that the narrator of the poem himself starts to analyse
about his life and why he thinks he is being discriminated against by the instructor in the
class. The readers get to know that the narrator is twenty-two-year-old person and he
describes himself as being “coloured”. As stated by Du Bous (2015), from his narrative, the
readers get to know the fact “Coloured” is the term that is being referred by the White
skinned Americans to the African American people around the parts of Brooklyn. The
narrator uses various instances in the poem including the sentence “So will my page be
coloured that I write?”.
These instances in the poem proves the point that the author is fully aware of being
discriminated by the instructor but at the same time, also cannot deny the fact that the fact
both the narrator and the instructor in the poem is linked to each other somehow as they both
are Americans. It is because of the narrator being asked to write for himself that the narrator
believes himself to be discriminated by the instructor of the class, although at the same time,

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he admits that there are many things that both the author and the instructor can learn from
each other.
The essay also points out the fact that if the narrator was the part of a predominantly
white classroom, then he would have faced massive discrimination and racism from the
students themselves (Trotman, 2014). This is because the narrator of the poem himself is an
African American and it is a common fact that blacks are looked down upon by the White
skinned Americans.
Therefore, from the above statement, it can be concluded that the author Langston
Hughes gives a perfect example of facing discrimination not just by himself but also by the
other members of the African-American community. The poem really draws the attention of
the readers to this issue all the while urging the readers to live without any forms of racism
and discrimination and live peacefully with each other in the world.

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Reference List
Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt, and Manning Marable. Souls of black folk. Routledge,
2015.
Trotman, C. James. Langston Hughes: the man, his art, and his continuing influence.
Routledge, 2014.