Langston Hughes writes in "Theme for English B":
"I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem."
Compare his short piece to Zora Neale Hurston's "How it Feels to Be Colored Me."
How do Hughes and Hurston differ in their approaches to their own racial identity?
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He did a great job at free writing.
ReplyDeletewhen reading the "Theme for ENglish B" a couple of times it seems as though he is saying even though he is of different race he likes to eat,sleep,drink,work, read, learn, and understand life which is what we all want. To me he sounds like a racial person. His quote "Sometimes perhaps you don`t want to be a part of me. Nor do I often want to be a part of you."
In the other reading she told her story and you would have a hard time understanding what race she was. She made her self fit right in. She was not hard on herself, infact she was very proud of you and what she was.
Sorry spelling is bad. I meant to write She made her self fit right in. She was never hard on herself, infact she was very pround of who she was, where she was, and what she was. I liked her story alot better, but again he did a great job at free writing. He expressed how he felt.
ReplyDeleteThe two approaches differ because Hughes is describing being the only colored student in the class. Zora describes the person as being the only colored person in the town unless people cross by on their way somewhere. They were also brought up in different towns in two diffrent states.
ReplyDeleteI see a difference because of the only view of one person colored. Zora talks about being in the only one in a town. It was pretty neat reading reading because of the difference.
ReplyDeleteI still dont have the book! They havent come in from the bookstore yet. what do I do?!
ReplyDeleteI think that both people were very confident in who they are, and were they come from. Even though Zora didnt make a point of her race, or that she didnt make it know she was still colored. But when you are confortable with who you are and the color of your skin what is the point of making a point on the color of it. In Langston Hughes peice i think that he make it know that heis a different color because he wants to point it out. I think that he wants to show that even though he is color he cant still be sucsessful. That any colored person can be sucsessful even if they come from the worse of places.
ReplyDeleteI think that they both want to make it known that anyone can make it far in life know matter where they are from. Know matter how hard they life was growing up, they still made it as sucsessful people. Anyone can make it if they try hard.
In "theme for English B" Huges talkes about the "Neccessity of respecting individual differences while at the same time valuing those bonds that link us to one another." when he makes this statement I feel as if he is saying, although we all are different in many different ways, to respecet eachother because we are all somehow one.
ReplyDeleteIn the passage of "How it feels to be a colored me" Hurston decribes that she also feels that all are the same in some way and that people of colored decent should be treated equally. But she also states in the passage that she is proud to be colored which in the "Theme for English B" Huges makes it seem like he would like eveyone to be the same when he talkes about how his paper wont be white because he is writing it, but the paper will be somewhat white because of the instructor being white.
I had the feeling Langston Hughes was speaking for all the people that live in Harlem when he said, “Harlem, I hear you: hear you, hear me – we two – you, me talk on this page.” I think he was saying he is comfortable in the African American world of Harlem. He was struggling with his feelings when he said, “You are white – yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. That’s American.” He tried to relate to his English teacher that they both came from the same country and should be equal. He seems to harbor more negative feels about his race.
ReplyDeleteMy impression of Zora’s story is that she doesn’t dwell on the color of her skin. She lives life a day at a time and enjoys the journey.
reading Hughes paper, other then a few times, i would have guessed hes white. but reading Zora's, all it talks about is how being colored effects her life and how being colored makes things harder and so on and so on.
ReplyDeletei think that two people are different from each other. zora, at times, sits there and complains about how being colored sucks and at other times how proud she feels to colored. while hughes just sits back all calm and collected. it dosnt seem like hughes even cares about race. which i completely agree with.
were doing all these pieces on race and its just starting to piss me off. so many people have different views on race. i can understand making a big deal about race if some one was racially profiled or some thing along those lines but for christ sake, its the 21st century. to me race is dead. there is no black or white and when people bring it up and make a big deal about it, it strikes and nerve. i also understand that there are some parts of the USA that are still white supremacists and i just feel sorry for them. race is dead...welcome to America and the 21st century.
Zora seems to sway on whether she cares or not about being colored, while Hughes seems to make his point clear that people are the same (eat,drink,sleep,etc.) except for color. Although he also hints at the end that white people are freer but at the time I'm sure that was a true statement socially.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Hughes and Zora both have the same feeling about being black. However Hughes does a better job at using his wisdom to deal with displacement and isn't as upfront about his position on where he fits into society compared to Zora. This may be due to the time and their location.
ReplyDeleteEventhough they both come off as proud of who they are, they both contradict themselves from time to time about how they actually fit into where they are.
As for JJ and his issue on race is dead...maybe for some people they have moved passed race, but I guarentee there is a strong number of people in America who still struggle with the fact that caucasions and african americans are on a level playing field. Racism is no where close to dead, look into the JENA 6 which happened about a year ago.
After reading both essays, I feel that Hughes was a bit more straightfoward about his writing. He came right out and just said, yes I am black and you are white, but we both like the same things and are both american, so in essence, we are the same people. I think that Hurston does the same thing, she just adds a bit more fluff to her writing (she puts more story behind it and even adds a bit of humor.) However, the both have the same feelings about being black, they just have different ways of expressing themselves.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that Hughes was very out there with what he wrote. and I enjoy a read where they are stright to the point and say what thye need to say right off the bat. so he is black and I'm white so what we are all the same no matter color
ReplyDeleteThe two definitively differ in their writing styles. Both writers share the same feelings tar ward the situation. But their points are taking different paths to reach their conclusion. Which is every one shares the same quality as the other but there just two different colors.
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