Michael Rice
Ms. Schell
ENC1102- 6th Period
4 May 2015
“I, Too” Explication “I, Too” is a poem written by Langston Hughes, a poet during the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance took place during the “Golden Age” of the 1920s and was a time of great awakening for the black culture. In this poem, Hughes displays the perspective of an African American living during this time. The audience is immediately able to pick up on what the poet is saying when he writes, “I am the darker brother (line 2).” Hughes effectively uses phrases such as “and grow strong” (7) to not only demonstrate individual strength, but the strength of the black race. In the poem, Hughes writes about how an African American must feel during the Jim Crow era and how there will be a day where blacks are no longer oppressed. During Langston Hughes’s time, bars and restaurants were segregated by color. When Hughes writes about being sent to the kitchen, some might think this means he is writing from the perspective of a slave living in the house with his white master. I believe that what Hughes is really trying to tell us is how he is not able to sit and dine with his is white counterpart or his “brother.” We can gather this from how he refers to himself as the black brother. Langston Hughes finishes up the first stanza describing how he still laughs as he grows strong. This phrasing could reflect how the African Americans felt at this time under the oppression of whites. No matter how poorly they were treated, no matter what, they would just laugh and know that things will be better. We see evidence of Langston Hughes’s hope for a better future in the following stanzas. He begins the third stanza with, “Tomorrow”(8) indicating how the future of blacks will