Cadwalader-Guild And Hughes

The poem “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes and the carving Free by Emma Marie Cadwalader-Guild, two different forms of art, both manage to capture the same messages. They were made in different eras, yet showcase the discriminations faced by African Americans. Both Hughes and the slave in the carving overcame an innumerable amount of challenges, their worlds consumed with false freedom. “English B” by Langston Hughes and Free by Cadwalader-Guild share countless commonalities; in both the poem and the carving, the false freedom they experienced, the discrimination they faced, and the challenges they overcame can all be seen and experienced. Free depicts a man, a slave that has been hardened by the difficult life he endured. Muscular from years of hard work, with his feet dirty and bare, one can see that this man never was graced with the easy …show more content…
Hughes walked to Harlem and through a park, across several streets, “to the Y, the Harlem Branch Y” (Hughes). Although the poem and the carving came about in different eras, 1951 and 1876, respectively, they both show discrimination. The life of a slave consisted of a life built on discrimination. Treated more like animals than actual people, they endured cruelties that no man or woman should be forced to endure. Hughes was forbidden to sleep in the dorm with the white students, and instead slept in the “Harlem Branch Y” (Hughes). Langston was aware that his professor lived a “somewhat more free” life due to him being “older — and white” (Hughes). Langston Hughes accepts the discriminatory title of “colored” that white people gave him and all other African Americans. African Americans, told that they could now live in the way that free people live, have been fed a lie. If one could be free without the rights and acceptance given to free people, then, and only then, could African Americans have been