Compare and Contrast of

             The theme of pride and prejudice is equally present in Sandburg's "Chicago" as well as in Hughes" "Theme for English B." .
             In the first lines of "Chicago," Sandburg acquaints the reader with the reputation Chicago has received as a city writing, "They tell me you are wicked and I believe them." Following these lines, Sandburg completely shifts the mood and instead writes about some of the unpleasant features of the city such as the "painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys," the "gunman kill and go free to kill again," and the "faces of woman and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger." However, Sandburg uses the prejudices held for the people who reside Chicago to ironically exert his pride for the city's unique inhabitants. Sandburg writes that the city is "Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness" depicting his pride for Chicago. Through the poem "Chicago" Sandburg has taught the reader that although people may primarily judge the city of Chicago by its prejudices, it is in fact the people who live in Chicago who give the city its pride.
             Hughes also presents the theme of pride and prejudice in his poem "Theme for English B." Being a colored man, Hughes was familiar with the prejudice held for him and his people throughout his entire life and in turn, Hughes, in his poem, expresses his opinion of these prejudices and how they never affected what he became as a "colored" man. Hughes uses the words "colored" and "white" throughout his entire poem to illustrate the importance these words have held throughout his life. Most importantly, using powerful lines such as, "I guess being colored doesn't make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races," Hughes again illustrates to the reader that although the narrator is aware of his skin color, he can still enjoy things that white people enjoy as well.