Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Writing

The entirety of “Theme for English B” revolves around a writing prompt assigned to the speaker by his English teacher. The poem explores the motif of writing in two senses: writing as process and writing as product. The speaker underscores the process of writing in the second and third stanzas, where he shows himself struggling to find language to express his complex feelings about race, identity, and belonging. The speaker also broaches the subject of writing as product when he asks the question that concludes the second stanza: “So will my page be colored that I write?” (line 27). Here, the speaker is developing a metaphor about the “race” of writing. Specifically, he’s asking whether a finished piece of writing reflects the racial identity of its author. This question raises a further issue related to the power implicit in being able to express yourself in writing. In one sense, writing is a marker of education and privilege. In another sense, however, it can be a vehicle for the freedom of thought, and hence for self-liberation. The speaker grapples with all these issues as he prepares his response to the writing prompt. The result of these preparations is the very poem we’re reading.

Em Dashes

Throughout the poem, Hughes uses em dashes to mark real-time breaks in the speaker’s thoughts. An em dash is a long dash (—) used as a form of punctuation. Writers typically use em dashes like parentheses, to mark off information that isn’t strictly necessary for understanding the sentence. Other times, em dashes may be used to signal an interruption or change in the direction of thinking. Hughes mainly uses em dashes in this second way. Although em dashes appear throughout the poem, they’re especially important in the third stanza, when the speaker addresses his teacher directly: “You are white— / yet a part of me, as I am a part of you” (lines 31–32). After asserting his teacher’s whiteness, the speaker stops momentarily. He then qualifies his initial statement, reflecting a new thought that the teacher’s whiteness may not fully explain the nature of their relationship. The speaker returns to similar thoughts at the stanza’s end (lines 37–40):

     As I learn from you,
     I guess you learn from me—
     although you’re older—and white—
     and somewhat more free. 

Here, the speaker revises a previous statement about the relationship of mutual influence between himself and his teacher. As he speaks, he remembers that his teacher’s age and race make him “somewhat more free,” and the em dashes mark the moments when these thoughts enter the speaker’s mind.