Compare and contrast the two poems' images and themes of "Love Medicine" by Louise Erdrich and "Theme for English B" by Langston Hughes.

Images support themes. Louise Erdich's "Love Medicine,"
and Langston Hughes' "Theme for English B," have similar themes, but the imagery is
specific to each poem. The theme that strikes me most clearly deals with
separation—alienation.

Langston's Hughes' poem, "Theme for
English B," is a homework assignment. The poet writes about his
truth. Hughes (if we assume he is the speaker) describes where he comes from, mentioning
Harlem, and the Y (YMCA) where he has a room. The prevalent reference here is the
connection between people that transcends color: Hughes knows others don't like it, and
that he does not either, at times. People are put off, in this case, with being the
"same."

Hughes is the only man of color in his class, and
his truth is different than that of the other
students.

Hughes' imagery points out much of what he has in
common with others, and his list is "color-blind:" it does not pertain specifically to a
person of any color; the items on his "list" are neutral—things  that most people
enjoy:

Well,
I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. 
I like to work, read, learn, and
understand life. 
I like a pipe... 
or records... 
I guess
being colored doesn't make me NOT like 
the same things other folks like who
are other races.

Noticeable
imagery occurs with the comparison of white and "colored" skin. Here the theme of
separation is clearly presented. Hughes writes to the professor, stating that they will
learn from one another—perhaps Hughes infers that true education defies a separation of
"color."

The theme of separation is constant, supported by
what is common to both races, and what is not. Hughes is alone in
his separation.

Louise Erdrich's poem, "Love Medicine," has
very different imagery, but the theme is the same.

Erdrich
speak about her sister in this poem, and how she fits in better
than the speaker (Louise?).

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This dragonfly, my
sister,

She belongs more than
I

to this night of rising
water.

"Dragonfly" may
simply refer to Erdrich's sister's green halter and chains creating a green iridescence
that catch the eye. However, in Native American culture, the dragonfly is symbolic,
representing "a lesson to be learned" in examining these deeper thoughts. Erdrich may be
looking for these especially because of what happens to her
sister:

...she
steps against the fistwork of a man...and his boot plants its grin / against the arches
of her face.

The rising water
may refer to a threat; the storm that brings it may generally refer to conflict. The
sister leaves her man in his Dodge to
walk about (he then "wears a long rut in the fog" looking for
her), but is punched by a man—a
different man (?!). The fog hides the violence. Erdrich does not
see it, but she finds her sister afterward.

The images
speak again of "separation." There is a separation between her sister and her man,
between Erdrich and her sister, and between sense and confounding
brutality.

For the sake of comparison, Hughes' speaks of
his separation, and trying to understand it even while he and
others have much in common.

Erdrich notes separation that
strikes with cruelty.

However, when
Erdrich repeats "I find her..." in the sixth stanza, this may indicate that the violence
is occurring in other places to other women—she notes that the separation is
wide-reaching. Perhaps when she refers
to "sister," it means all
women.

Erdrich's separation would then refer to abused
women; Hughes' separation seems to refer to the that between
races.