“I, Too” is a poem about racial segregation written by Langston Hughes. Hughes was a writer during the “Harlem renaissance”, a time period when an enormous amount of African American writers materialized. The persona of this poem is a young man who is African American. The poem itself is written in verse and is spoken in colloquial English. The speaker begins by saying “I, too, can sing America”, which means that the speaker is identifying himself with whomever he is addressing. He then goes on to say” I am the darker brother” which means that he is of African American descent. “They send me to go eat in the kitchen, when company comes.” This alludes to the racial discrimination African Americans still had to endure decades after they earned their freedom. At the time it wasn’t socially acceptable for different races to intermingle; so when lighter people went somewhere, darker people were immediately asked to leave. The persona of this poem surprises us all when he says “But I laugh, and eat well, and grow strong”. Instead of being infuriated at his mistreatment and allowing it to diminish his confidence, this boy laughs it off and leaves. He continues to grow strong even when people are trying to weaken him. To me, this is the ultimate test of character. When someone is going out of their way to tear him down, he rises even higher. …show more content…
Instead of lying down and taking it, he gets up and confidently tells the readers that next time he’ll be treated equally. He then says “besides, they’ll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed-” This shows that even though he hasn’t been treated correctly by the white majority, he is still optimistic that that same majority will not only accept him, but see him as beautiful and be ashamed of their actions. His hope for a better future inspires the readers to try and make that future