Theme for English B reflects the inner conflicts of a minority race in a predominantly white society, written by Langston Hughes (1902-1967), who was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, the African American artistic movement in the 1920s that celebrated black life and culture. Hughes later became famous for this writings of Black American life in his poems, stories, autobiographies, histories and his literary works helped shape American literature and politics. In the poem Theme for English B, Hughes tried to put forward the dissatisfaction and frustration of being a colored student in his class, where he feels alienated because of his race.
The concept of race is not new. From the earliest accounts of travelers noting differences in physical characteristics of people in different parts of the world, attempts have been made to classify these different groups based on the thinking of the times. Even during the times of Homer, the Iliad and Odyssey acknowledged variability. The texts referred to Aethiopians, the people at the eastern and western edges of the known world, and to cubit-men, presumably referring to African pygmies.
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