Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes

I thought Langston Hughes’ poetry was pretty straightforward. His poetry all had the same common theme within them. His poetry revolved around the attitude and emotions that come along with being an African American around that time frame. My favorite poem of his was “Theme for English B”. I love how the poem has a focus on what makes people different. We are all human beings therefore not that much different, just physical differences. At one point the author comments that he knows the teacher does not want to be a part of him (or affiliated with) because he is African American. But he also says that he does not want to be a part of the teacher either. And no matter what, unfortunately, they still are! Even though they live in two worlds where people are treated very differently, they are still learning from one another, and still have common traits with one another.
The story, “On the Road” was a very neat story to me. I like the main character of the story and the things he went through just to get a place to sleep. It was sort of ironic at the end though. He finally gets a place to eat, sleep, and live yet he still wants to break the door down to the jail cell. I think this makes fun of him, in a way. Like he is not smart enough to realize that this is where he has ended up. He goes through getting beat by cops and walking around in the snow for hours and then finally ends up in a place he was looking for all along. The reference to God is a little unusual for me. Did he actually see God and God guided him to a place to sleep, or did he just dream the whole thing up?