USA HISTORY

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THE ROARING 20S 1920 1929

1920S AMERICAN CULTURE

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
“I, Too, Sing America” I, too, sing America.I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong.Tomorrow, I’ll sit at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody’ll dareSay to me, “Eat in the kitchen, “Then.Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed-I, too, am America.-Langston Hughes, 1926
A
end the institution of slavery
B
demonstrate self-respect by African Americans
C
maintain separation of the races
D
promote the back-to-Africa movement
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -In the poem, Hughes describes a ubiquitous racial oppression that degrades African Americans at the time. He writes from the perspective of an inferior servant to a domineering white family that shoos him away to the kitchen whenever company arrives.

Detailed explanation-2: -This phrase is saying that a black person’s white master or owner sends him to eat in the kitchen when company comes, as black people were thought to be inferior and uneducated.

Detailed explanation-3: -And eat well, And grow strong.” This poem is all about sticking it to the man. The speaker’s basically being told to disappear himself to the kitchen because company’s arrived and he’s black… and you know, black people just aren’t supposed to be at the table with company.

Detailed explanation-4: -Another literary device Hughes employs is parallelism, in which lines are arranged in similar grammatical constructions. The poem opens and ends with an example of this, as the first line reads “I, too, sing America” and the final line is “I, too, am America."

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