Analysis Of Langston Hughes 'Poem I Eat In The Kitchen'

the kitchen” (13). Syntax provides an emphasis to the speaker’s ideas when he says in an incomplete line, “Nobody’ll dare” (11), adding complexity to the sentence structure to also emphasize that nobody will ever dare to treat the former slave as a slave again. “Then” (14) is important to the passages’ syntax singling out to be of something similar to line 8 with “Tomorrow”. Then serves as almost a command, or to prove the point that he is no longer a slave. This short selected passage is ironic to the previous lines before, because the company would always tell him to “eat in the kitchen” (13), while he obeyed but had the determination that one day he would “grow strong” (7) and become more than what he is. As Hughes paints the picture for his audience, human agency is seen to be as something that takes time, and will be appreciated in the end.

Both ideas collide as Hughes sees human agency as something that will be achieved with time, and Du Bois states that race is seen as a problem in America, even today making it hard for some races to get along and get around. The speaker in Hughes’ poem at the end states that “I, too, am America”, where Du Bois just wants the African American race to have a standpoint within the world, but it is too hard for them with the discrimination. This impact on race in America may have been a problem, but as it improved it could connect with Hughes and the reach for human agency. In “Poem for the Young White Man”, Lorna Dee Cervantes argues on the difficulty of managing a balance between race and human agency. She connotes “Marked” (29) to be literal of marked on a piece of paper, but can also have a second meaning where being “marked” is