Poem Assignment

Langston Hughes
1. All of the rivers Hughes mentions are in Africa, I believe he chose these rivers because he is referring to the roots of African Americans.
2. By saying “I am the darker brother” Hughes means that he is Black. He eats in the kitchen because Whites don’t think he contributes to anything other than labor and look down on him. Hughes knows that one day Blacks will get the rights they deserve by saying he’ll be able to eat at the table tomorrow. Hughes is connecting the way America treats Negroes to the way someone is sent away when company comes. His title “I, Too” is important because he too will be able to one day eat in the kitchen and he too will receive fair treatment.
3. Reserved
4. Hughes has a very deep way of writing that doesn’t rely on diction that is hard to understand. He uses writing that is easily understood and uses symbolism a lot. He shows blacks as a race of wisdom and experience. He rarely rhymes through his poems.
5. He wrote on how Blacks were put in all kinds of different cultures and influences but nothing specifically about themselves. I don’t think the same issues are revelant, there is Black History Month and several other holidays celebrating African American culture.
6. Hughes doesn’t really feel that Blacks need to be back in Africa, he feels that Blacks will gain respect in America. With that belief, he wants to change the thoughts of whites. He treat identity as precious, throughout his poems the reader can tell he is proud to be Black.

Claude McKay
1. The harlot is Egypt. Harlot means prostitute, McKay uses this word to describe how the country put itself out there for fame and fortune, not realizing that it was destroying itself by doing so.
2. Blacks are referred to as hogs, rounded up by offensive dogs that mock them. When I think of hogs I think of a lowly, dirty creature that isn’t good for anything but killing. The dogs are the whites, who keep the blacks in place. This is related to slavery because the dominant, numerous, and strong dogs control the helpless hogs.
3. McKay writes in an older style, occasionally using rhymes but not relying on it. I believe he tries to show intelligence by writing this way, intending for whites to read and see blacks as intelligent people.