What is the theme of Langston Hughes poem "Life is Fine"?

All right, so we need to determine theme. An easy way to
think about theme is to answer this question: What statement about the world is the
speaker of the poem sending to the reader. If you can answer that, you've got your
theme.

Let's analyze the poem a bit. Although the speaker
doesn't directly say it, through a little bit of inferencing we can tell that the first
two stanzas suggest two different suicide attempts, one by drowning, one by leaping off
a building. However, the italicized verses below each of these stanzas indicate some
fears and/or excuses why the speaker didn't follow through on his plan: "It was cold!"
(9), "It was high!" (18). We sense that the speaker may not actually kill himself after
all. The third stanze tells us why:

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I could've died for love--
But for
livin' I was born

Though you may hear me holler,
And you may
see me cry--
I'll be dogged, sweet baby,
If you gonna see me
die.

Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!

Here, the final
impact and message (and, hence, theme) is revealed. The speaker tells us that, while he
could've killed himself "for love" (I'm assuming a failed relationship or the death of a
lover), he says that he knows he was born "for livin'" and we'll be "dogged" if we're
going to see him actually kill himself. Why? Because "life is fine." If we simplify that
into one statement, we'll have a theme.

I'd go with
something like this: While pain does exist and may lead to desperate thoughts, our
purpose on earth is to live the fine, beautiful life we've been given. The speaker
states this most clearly in the verses "I could've died for love/but for livin' I was
born" (21-22).