The poem “Theme for English B”, written by Langston Hughes, is a narrative from the point of view of a black student on his first day of English B. Throughout the poem the speaker addresses his anxieties about how the class will go. The poem is set around the time that black students were first being allowed into colleges, this being a major reason he is worried that no one will respect him. As sad as it is, people tend to judge based on appearance, and while I face this issue because of my piercings and tattoos those are things that I can control.
Skin color is not something that can be changed simply to avoid judgment. The narrator has another cause of worry in the age difference between he and the other students. If an age difference is present, whether it be that the student is younger or older than the rest of the class, there is a culture gap between generations that makes it easy to feel awkward around the other students in the class. The experience explained in the poem shows a broke college kid stereotype of him living in a cheap place working his own way through school, a feeling that a lot of students can relate with.
All though some of the concerns expressed in the poem I can not sympathize with because of the fact that I am white, there are plenty of things I can relate with it in it. Race plays a major role in Langston Hughes “Theme for English B”, causing Hughes’ anxiety of how the class will go. The narrator of the poem is a black man in a particularly discriminatory time period where people of his race had literally just begun being allowed into college, so he has plenty of reason to be nervous and uncomfortable in a classroom full of white people.
Hughes states in line ten that the speaker is the only colored student in his class (Hughes 7). Feeling different in a classroom is something I have experienced many times. Having piercings and tattoos is a personal choice on my part, that I decided to do with my body because I think it enhances and improves my appearance. There is always a worry in the back of my head that people will judge me based on my appearance, but frankly the opinions of judgmental people like that do not matter to me. The speaker, however, is likely to be judged regardless with what he does with his body just because he is a black man.
This puts him in a much scarier situation than I find myself in. While I can sympathize a fear of being judged off my appearance, I will never be able fully to understand the feelings Hughes is writing about because of the fact that I am a white man. The odds of someone judging me because of our differences is ridiculously low when compared to the odds of these things happening to him. The traditional age that people start college in America, or at least have the option to start college, is eighteen.
Of course in Langston Hughes day that was not an option for people of color. By the time universities integrated, Hughes was a few years past eighteen, but that was not enough to stop him from enrolling. Considering the assignment is for English B it is inferred that this is not his first day of college for him, but just the first day of that class. The people in his class are most likely younger than him if he started his further education late. It is completely normal to feel discouraged being the oldest student in a classroom, it makes you feel like an outcast.
I personally have been on the opposite side of the age gap spectrum; in a few of my classes I am the youngest student. The first day of class upon walking in and seeing that the class consisted of mostly juniors and seniors, I became worried that the class would be too much for me to handle or that no one would take me seriously. There is a line in “Theme for English B” that I strongly agree with, “It’s not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty-two… (Hughes 16/17). ” Young adults are all still trying to grow and find them selves, none of us are perfect.
All I could do is hope that they would respect me despite our age difference, and I feel as though this is exactly how Hughes felt while writing this poem. He is hoping that his classmates well respect him despite all of their differences. Even though our situations are on different sides of the age gap spectrum, Hughes and I have a shared anxiety of judgment that allows me to sympathize, at least to an extent, with the experience he describes in this poem. The narrator describes his college experience in a way that gives the reader this image of a starving student working his way up from nothing.
The broke college student is a stereotype for a reason, students can only afford tuition because of financial aid, scholarships, student loans, or really rich parents. Considering the majority of us do not have the latter, most of us know what it feels like to not be able afford groceries, or having to use quarters as gas money. The speaker states that he is currently living in a cheap little room in a YMCA, “… the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator up to my room, sit down, and write this page (Hughes 14/15).
With this information the reader can assume that the speaker most likely does not have a lot of extra money laying around and is putting himself through school. I am furthering my education with money that is completely off of financial aid and student loans, and because of this the only way I could afford to move out here and attend school is by living in the dorms. The costs of dorms can be put in with tuition, giving me the opportunity to pay for it with my loans. If I had to live off campus right now, with me not having the time to work, I would not be able to attend Troy.
The speaker does at least have the advantage of living in an area where he does not need a car to get to school and around the city, as shown by him describing his walk home (Hughes 13/14/15). This is an advantage that I do not have living in Troy; my line of work is not exactly common or needed here. This leaves me in a situation where I have to drive to Montgomery and spend most of the money I make on gas. Throughout the poem “A Theme for English B” a black student on his first day of class in English B expresses the worries he has about how the class will go.
Most of these worries are based off of the fact that he is a black man in an incredibly racist time period, giving him valid concerns that his classmates and his professor will not respect him or even expect him to fail. Being a white man, I will never fully understand how the narrator feels, but there are plenty of other things I can relate to in the poem. Often times people have judged me based off my appearance without getting to know me, and I understand how that can feel even though my appearance is my choice.
Not only is he worried about the racial differences between he and the other students, there is also an age gap present where it is most likely that he is the oldest student in his class. Considering I am already younger than most of the other freshman, any class that I have that is a large percentage of upperclassmen there is quite an age gap present. This can help me sympathize with what the narrator is going through despite the fact that I am on the opposite side of the spectrum.
Even with all of these differences between the narrator and his classmates, the college experience that he describes is one that many students can relate to. Living away from home in a not so great place and struggling with finances is something anyone who has to pay their way through college goes through. The narrator and I may not have a lot in common, especially because of what a harder situation he faced as a black man in that time period, but in certain ways I can see where he is coming from with a sense of empathy as I have been through similar situations.
