Langston Hughes "Theme for English B" and Gerald Graff’s "Hidden Intellectualism"

Langston Hughes “Theme for English B” and Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism” portray racial separation and intellectual isolation, respectively. Hughes’ essay is poetic justice, and Graff’s is a call to arms. Hughes’ is short and to the point and is simply what it is, no arguing or convincing, just raw thought. Graff’s is highly intellectual; offering examples and reasoning, and it could even be seen as a not-quite-finished plea to the nation to reevaluate our education system. But the many differences in these articles are not what they seem. These so-called “differences” are really just distractions we choose to see on the surface, but in fact, the essays work together quite well. When examined closely, looking past the obvious surface differences, Hughes and Graff are essentially speaking about the same thing: social separation.

One major difference between the two papers is the manner of which elements are presented due to the authors being, of course, different. This affects the method of delivery in the two essays, although they both still come to a similar emotional portrayal. In Hughes’ poem, he has a very raw and at times cynical approach to conveying his message. He uses black and white terms and is obvious in his attempt to demonstrate the separation he feels others place between black and white people. Consider the following lines “So will my page be colored that I write? / Being me, it will not be white,” (Hughes 800). Hughes feels this separation and states it outright between black and white, not of educational boundaries or anything else except racial bias. Then, in Graff’s essay, he goes much more in depth on the topic, talking about educational boundaries and how a teacher could actually get results f...

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...of social construction and really are about some negative sides of the human experience. Whether black or white, lower-class or upper-class, separation exists. It’s evident by these authors own experiences, no matter what method they use to convey it, whether that method be intellectual or emotional. Social separation, no matter what the cause, can be very damaging, and is felt by all kinds of people. Not just the black or the white, or the intellectuals or the “hoods.”

REFERENCES

Hughes, Langston. “Theme for English B” The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings. Richard Bullock, Maureen Daly Goggin, eds. New York: W. W. Norton & Compant, 2010. 799-800. Print.

Graff, Gerald. “Hidden Intellectualism”They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein and Russel Durst, eds. New York: Norton, 2009. 297-303. Print.