Analysis of Theme for English B

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Theme for English B In Langston Hughes’s “Theme for English B” he displays the issues of segregation in schools and the thirst for knowledge and success. The struggle that speaker goes through because of the English assignment that was given to him shows a sense of insecurity and uneasiness that he may not necessarily be fully accepted in society. The poem brings forward self-awareness and identity crisis to demonstrate the speaker’s inner conflict of embracing his roots or applying himself to become more like the non-colored young adults in his class. Throughout his struggle the idea of the word truth is more based upon situation rather that validity. Hughes uses many rhetorical devices in this poem to elucidate the questioning the speaker is really doing of himself. Starting with asking, “ I wonder if it’s that simple”. (6) the speaker announces this after reading over his assignment for his class but then the assignment is not only what he is questioning. The simplicity could also represent if life is “that simple” or more likely in this case if expressing one’s self is “that simple.” being, as he mentions, “the only colored student in my class” (10) expressing his feelings and experiences in life may be incredibly different compared to the others. It isn’t easy for him to express himself but this kicks off his inner conflict with the sense of staying true to himself by finding a way of accepting that he will never necessarily be exactly like his other classmates due to his skin color or the choice of making it “that simple” and forgetting the struggles that he has faced to get to where he is now and take the easy way out by following society and expressing himself the way everybody else thinks is acceptable. The struggles that he has been through are evident by the biography that he writes out for himself, “I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem/ I

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