Langston Hughes Poem Analysis
Background: On a hot and humid day, my course at Columbia University toured Harlem through the route described in Langston Hughes's, Theme for English B. In his poem, Hughes describes his walk from City College of New York to his home in Harlem.
When we walked down the steps from City College to Harlem, just as Hughes did, I realized Hughes's prevalent battle; he came from an underprivileged background to attend a university where he was the only African American student in his class. Going down, these steps seemed like a dead end, as if opportunity vanished right from behind. As I walked my last step down, I looked back up, with the luminous sun in my eyes, and saw something beautiful; these steps did not disappear and the path was still …show more content…
Somehow between the years of Hughes going to college and today, the area had changed dramatically through gentrification. On our stop here, I was instructed to read Hughes's poem to the class. However, it was not as effortless as I thought it would be. Once I had walked in Langston Hughes's footsteps, I felt the impact of his life on mine. He was a part of me, just as I was a part of him.
We were on our way back to City College. This meant that we had to reverse our entire trip to climb back up those stairs and return to City College. It was fathomable, however, being that we has already completed the walk all the way to the end. We experienced the uphills and unexpected turns and twists of the sidewalks, and learned to fuel ourselves before embarking on such an exhausting walk. We learned that the path back would not be easy, but we were not discouraged. We were ready to experience it all again.
I am grateful to have walked down those steps. Ranging from the principles of embracing adversity and remaining optimistic during difficult circumstances, to showing humility in accepting help from others, going down these steps revealed my
When we walked down the steps from City College to Harlem, just as Hughes did, I realized Hughes's prevalent battle; he came from an underprivileged background to attend a university where he was the only African American student in his class. Going down, these steps seemed like a dead end, as if opportunity vanished right from behind. As I walked my last step down, I looked back up, with the luminous sun in my eyes, and saw something beautiful; these steps did not disappear and the path was still …show more content…
Somehow between the years of Hughes going to college and today, the area had changed dramatically through gentrification. On our stop here, I was instructed to read Hughes's poem to the class. However, it was not as effortless as I thought it would be. Once I had walked in Langston Hughes's footsteps, I felt the impact of his life on mine. He was a part of me, just as I was a part of him.
We were on our way back to City College. This meant that we had to reverse our entire trip to climb back up those stairs and return to City College. It was fathomable, however, being that we has already completed the walk all the way to the end. We experienced the uphills and unexpected turns and twists of the sidewalks, and learned to fuel ourselves before embarking on such an exhausting walk. We learned that the path back would not be easy, but we were not discouraged. We were ready to experience it all again.
I am grateful to have walked down those steps. Ranging from the principles of embracing adversity and remaining optimistic during difficult circumstances, to showing humility in accepting help from others, going down these steps revealed my