Synthesis Essay on Langston Hughes’s “Theme for English B” and Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson”

`America : Construct vs . Reality

The concept of `America ' as a country is that of the great melting pot of the world , a place where a truly diverse set of people come together and forgetting religious , social , economic , national as well as linguistic differences are molten into one identity , that is of an American . The process of becoming one forgetting all differences involves the common pursuit of the fabled `American Dream . However , the identity of an `American ' is not a fixed and rigid one delimited by class , creed or money . The most interesting

aspect of this identity lies in its unique flexibility , a natural outcome perhaps of America 's being the great melting pot of the world . The country moreover provides its citizen with an equal right to pursue happiness . In pursuit of happiness in the great land of equality and infinite opportunity , the citizens having their roots in diverse cultures and religion grows to become an `American ' above everything else and find their true self , a self surely emanating from but not confined in their communal identities

Theme for English B by Langston Hughes as well as the short story The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara delves into the theme of the American identity as a citizen of the great land of Liberty and Equality and the ground reality . However , in spite of pointing out a few discrepancies between the construct and the reality of the situation , both the texts ring out with the positive note . Both the texts , the poem explicitly while the short story implicitly , asserts the immensity of the possibilities that are latent in the American Dream . And in this sense the two texts are extremely close to each other . In fact the Miss Moore of Bambara 's short story seem to be the female version of the protagonist in Langston Hughes ' poem Theme for English B . Both the characters have found refuge in the umbrella term `American ' and have succeeded in asserting their own individuality

Langston Hughes , for instance , in the poem Theme for English B , finds the meaning of being `American ' in the freedom and possibility this socially and politically constructed identity provides to rise above other racial , cultural and social differences . In the simplest level it means that one can be black , white , brown or yellow and an American at the same time . But its deeper connotations are more striking . By being an American one can escape the possibility of being stereotyped according to race , culture or social standing . In the short story , The Lesson , too the young narrator , at first , finds Miss Moore funny because in spite of the fact that she is black , she does not share the characteristic traits that are part and parcel of the identity of the black community . For instance , in spite of being Black she had perfect speech and used no make-up etc . In other words she is a non-conformist as far as the identity of her community is concerned . Thus by the virtue of the `American...