I, Too, Sing America By Langston Hughes

The poem "I, Too, Sing America" by Langston Hughes builds on Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing." Hughes's poem was written earlier than Whitman's, and their titles are almost identical. The poem "I, Too, Sing America" states, "I am the darker brother;" therefore, the theme of the poem is that "everyone has a voice." I Hear America Singing." The line "Each singing what belongs to him, to her, and to none else" tells that the theme of the poem "I Hear America Singing" is that each voice is individual. Hughes's poem teaches us that people of all races and occupations are allowed to have a voice, while Whitman's poem teaches us that America is made up of hard workers who love their jobs. In Whitman’s poem, he lists a bunch of occupations and the song of each

All the songs come together, but each person has their own individual song that is specific to the job that they do. Walt Whitman shows that Americans are hardworking people who will ''work all day and all night''. In Hughe’s poem, there is a similar theme of people working, but instead it focuses on one person. This person considers himself as “the darker brother” and he is being ''sent to the kitchen and not eating at the table.'' These things point out that Langston Hughes is talking about a black man who is working at a house for white people. Hughes's poem is builds off Whitman's poem because he is still talking about the job that this person is doing, but Hughes builds that there are other people in America, like African Americans, who are also working really hard, but that Whitman didn’t mention in his poem. Hughes is talking about racism in America, and showing that not just white Americans work hard, but people of all races work just as hard. He proves this when he says, “I, too, am America.” Hughes is proving that America is not just the people that Whitman wrote about, but also a lot of other people who are not