Theme for English Explication

The poem starts out with the student replaying the teacher’s instructions in his head, The instructor said, Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you--- Then, it will be true. These instructions show that what is honest is true. The instructor wants them to write out their own thoughts and feelings and not use someone else’s writing to pass off as their own, but to understand their own point of view and how they feel and what they think. The student wonders if writing a paper could be that simple because of who he is where he came from. I wonder if it's that simple? 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. I am the only colored student in my class.

In the second section of the poem the speaker’s real feelings come through about the inequality between black and white races. He provides information about himself like where he lives, and some of the things that he likes and so on. It's not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:

hear you, hear me---we two---you, me, talk on this page. (I hear New York too.) Me---who? Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life. I like a pipe for a Christmas present, or records---Bessie, bop, or Bach. This is saying that he is a part of something that is much more, he his not himself without Harlem and the people there; black and white.

The poem is also concerned with the similarities and differences between the speaker and the instructor. He also speaks on the lack of bitterness or animosity towards these differences. I guess being colored doesn't make me NOT like same things other folks like who are other races. So will my page be colored that I write? Being me, it will not be white. But it will be a part of you, instructor. You are white--- yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. That's American.

This poem shows that the speaker is not resentful of race relations in America, and believes that the undeniable connection between blacks and whites that he speaks of in the last stanza is truly what it means to be American. Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me. Nor do I often want to be a part of you. But we are, that's true! As I learn from you,