What is going on in Langston Hughes poem I too sing America?

Answer 1

Answer

I have quoted the "I Too Sing America" and "I Hear America Singing" at the bottom of this response, thanks to Poets.Org:

The poem indirectly refers to Walt Whitman's poems like "I Hear America Singing" and "Song of Myself Part I" where Walt Whitman uses the metaphor of song to discuss how Americans from various different occupations all come together to create one harmonious American identity. In Langston Hughes' view, the African-American has been forced out of this song of America, but is an important part. In this poem, he petitions the reader to see that he is equal to his White brothers.

He reveals the racism set deep in American culture at the time by saying that "whenever company comes" he, a representative for the African-American community, are forced to eat in the kitchen. In this way, the African-Americans can be swept under the carpet and not incorporated into the face that America presents to the world. However, he says that this isolation, while mostly negative, does have a salutary element. He can "grow strong".

Langston is not only negative. He foresees a future in which all Americans will recognize that African Americans are truly a part of American culture and will blown away by the beauty of that culture. Their importance will be so central that nobody will "dare" to relegate him to the kitchen to hide. Instead, they will be ashamed that they ever asked the African-American community to do that. In a certain sense, some of that "future" has come to pass, but much more progress still has to be done for African-Americans to really become equal partners in the Song of America.

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Besides,

They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed-

I, too, am America.

Answer 2

Answer

I have quoted the "I Too Sing America" and "I Hear America Singing" at the bottom of this response, thanks to Poets.Org:

The poem indirectly refers to Walt Whitman's poems like "I Hear America Singing" and "Song of Myself Part I" where Walt Whitman uses the metaphor of song to discuss how Americans from various different occupations all come together to create one harmonious American identity. In Langston Hughes' view, the African-American has been forced out of this song of America, but is an important part. In this poem, he petitions the reader to see that he is equal to his White brothers.

He reveals the racism set deep in American culture at the time by saying that "whenever company comes" he, a representative for the African-American community, are forced to eat in the kitchen. In this way, the African-Americans can be swept under the carpet and not incorporated into the face that America presents to the world. However, he says that this isolation, while mostly negative, does have a salutary element. He can "grow strong".

Langston is not only negative. He foresees a future in which all Americans will recognize that African Americans are truly a part of American culture and will blown away by the beauty of that culture. Their importance will be so central that nobody will "dare" to relegate him to the kitchen to hide. Instead, they will be ashamed that they ever asked the African-American community to do that. In a certain sense, some of that "future" has come to pass, but much more progress still has to be done for African-Americans to really become equal partners in the Song of America.

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Besides,

They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed-

I, too, am America.