Langston Hughes
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.
1. Discuss the following questions.
1) How does this poem make you redefine what it means to be an American? How is“America” presented in this poem, and how does it make you feel about America?
2) What effect does the intensely domestic imagery of the poem — the house, the kitchen, the eating, the table — have on the themes of this piece as a whole?
3) Why do you think Hughes chose the comparative term “darker” for the poem’s second line, instead of “dark”?
4) To whom do you think the speaker of the poem considers himself “brother”? Where does the poem suggest this “brother” eats when there is no “company” in the house?
5) What does the poem suggest about Hughes’ assessment of the economic situation of African-Americans in the 1920s?
6) What does the poem predict will be the eventual attitude of white Americans toward black people?
2. Pair Work: Read Walt Whitman’s I Hear America Singing and try to analyze how it is similar to and different from I, Too, Sing America in the two poets’ views of America, tones, styles and themes.
Notes
1.Kate Chopin (1850-1904): A well-known American southern regionalist woman writer, best known for her short stories and a novel, The Awakening. One of her recurring themes — the problems facing women in a society that repressed them —made her literary works highly popular in the late twentieth century.
2.corbeille: French, which means wedding garments.
3.cochon de lait: French word, an affectionate term meaning “milky pig”.