Theme for English B

I really enjoyed Langston Hughes’ “Theme for English B” because it was so simple.  The message was clear, and I didn’t have to do any extra digging to figure out what Hughes was trying to say.  It’s a message of equality; that we’re all the same no matter how different we appear on the outside.

                

Hughes says, “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.  I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races.”  That, I believe, is the heart of Hughes’ message.  Everyone has common interests, no matter what race they belong to.  We all have the same thoughts, hopes, and fears; the only thing that really separates us from each other is the views of society.  As cliché as it sounds, we’re all more alike than we realize.

                

Later, the poem says, “You are white – yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.  That’s 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!”  He brings up the idea that America is made up of many different races, and even if the races may not want to associate with each other at times, they all comprise this country and they wouldn’t be here without each other.  It is easy to see why Hughes’ poetry was so influential.  He was fighting for racial equality, and poems like “Theme for English B” really helped to emphasize the unfairness of how African Americans were being treated because it emphasized how everyone is the same, regardless of skin color.  

John Cage

               I was stunned when I read about the unconventional work of John Cage in the text.  He invented the prepared piano, which is simply a normal piano with random objects attached to its strings.

               Later on in his career, Cage “composed” a strange piece of “music” called 4’33”.  In 4’33”, the performer literally just sits in front of a piano for four minutes and thirty-three seconds.  The actual music of the piece becomes all of the noises in the room.  This is an example of the aleatory work that made Cage so famous.  Aleatory means that his work depends on random happenings.  So, if a person sitting in the room watching 4’33” coughed, it would become a part of the piece.  I understand that Cage had new ideas and was being very experimental, but I DON’T understand how something like 4’33” can be a respected piece of music or how it can be called music at all.  Cage composed another piece of “music” called “Imaginary Landscape No. 4,” in which twelve radios are playing at the same time while performers mess with the volume and the controls.  I don’t know which would be worse: having to sit in awkward silence watching a still performer sit in front of a piano for five minutes or having to listen to the chaotic noise of twelve radios playing over each other.  Either way, I don’t consider these pieces music at all and if I was an audience member I would want my money back.

4'33"

Imaginary Landscape No. 4

               While John Cage was doing something completely different from any artist that came before him, I can definitely see the connection to the Dada movement.  Cage’s work is nonsense, and it raises the question of how far an artist can stray from the norm while still calling his work art.

  

1984

                I’m surprised how little the book talked about utopian and dystopian novels.  It seems like the book tries to focus a lot more on painters and poets, when there’s so much great literature that it barely discusses.  It gives all of two sentences to 1984, a book written by George Orwell in 1949 as his prediction of what the future would be like.  1984 gives the reader a greater feeling of hopelessness and dread than any other book out there.  Almost every aspect of the characters’ lives is controlled by the government, which is headed by a possibly-fictional dictator called Big Brother.  The book centers around the character Winston Smith, who is determined to rebel against the government and become a member of a rumored resistance group called the Brotherhood.  Winston’s efforts prove futile; he ends up being found out and tortured until he is brainwashed and completely submissive to the government he tried to fight.  The book’s last line reads: “He loved Big Brother.”  

                 This book reflects a growing fear in the mid and late 1940s of a totalitarian government that could strip people of their personal freedoms.  The book was published around the time that World War II ended, when the effects of the war were still being felt.   People were worried that a war like World War I or World War II could happen again, but that it would be much worse and could lead to a government like the one in 1984.  A character in the book says to Winston, “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”  Although the book is very sinister, it is one of my favorites because it doesn’t end happily like many others; it gives the reader something to think about after they’re finished.  It was relevant then and is still relevant now, because people always seem to be scared that a government will gain too much power.