“I, Too” Through Intertextuality Identity
Do you know that not one text is an island and every text already written, already read is?. Yes, every text comes from an earlier created text, so new texts are just version. Due this reason, originality is question and hard to defined. Furthermore, in the the poem “I, Too”
By Langston Hughes can be efficaciously analyse with intertextuality, and identity theories. To illustrate a new perspective to different audiences about today 's society ideologies on social prejudice and progressivism in the American people. In order, to generate self consciousness of the dangerous effects of social identity.
First of all, the poem “I, Too”, can be intertextuality interconnected to the poem “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman, in order emphasize the negative impacts of
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To illustrate, in the poem “I Hear America Singing”, Whitman writes about different workers “the mechanic”(2), “the carpenter”(3), “the shoemaker”(6) and includes workers of both gender, which the job they do defines who they are. However, in the poem Whitman does not mention the singing of the unwanted or the people who are often omitted from society for racial circumstances. Due to this reason, the poem “I, Too” can be employed as an adaptation where intertextuality becomes a central element of the adoption theory. For instance, in his poem, “I, Too”, Langston Hughes writes: “ I, too, sing America / I am the darker brother. / They send me to eat in the kitchen / When company comes” (Hughes 1-4). This demonstrates that regardless of being a color person, he had also the freedom to sing America even when others didn 't see him as part of society. In addition, the poem “I Hear America Singing”, and Langston Hughes poem “I, Too” can be consider a palimpsest where Hughes gives a new perspective about the American identity and freedom to a new audience such as African Americans and Immigrants.
This poem is often compared to Walt Whitman’s I Hear America Singing because of the similarities of the two poems. In this poem, Hughes argues that the African American race is equal to whites. Hughes even declares that one day the African American race will be equal to whites. Hughes proclaims, “Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed-I, too, am America.” Hughes was very bold and daring when he wrote these lines in this poem. He is implying that the white people will regret what they have done to blacks. That they will be ashamed of how they treated them. Undoubtedly, this poem expresses Hughes cultural identity.
Langston Hughes's stories deal with and serve as a commentary of conditions befalling African Americans during the Depression Era. As Ostrom explains, "To a great degree, his stories speak for those who are disenfranchised, cheated, abused, or ignored because of race or class." (51) Hughes's stories speak of the downtrodden African-Americans neglected and overlooked by a prejudiced society. The recurring theme of powerlessness leads to violence is exemplified by the actions of Sargeant in "On the Road", old man Oyster in "Gumption", and the robber in "Why, You Reckon?"
The writing of Langston Hughes in “I too” is significantly dependant on his point of view. The actions that occur in the poem are as realistic as they can get because Langston Hughes is speaking from the heart. He passed through the Harlem Renaissance and faced constant struggles with racism. Because of that, his writing seems to manifest a greater meaning. He is part of the African-American race that is expressed in his writing. He writes about how he is currently oppressed, but this does not diminish his hope and will to become the equal man. Because he speaks from the point of view of an oppressed African-American the poem’s struggles and future changes seem to be of greater importance than they ordinarily would.
Throughout African American history different individuals have made a significant impact that would forever change things. In the 1900s Harlem became the governing body for the birth of jazz and blues. This also open door for a new era called the Harlem Renaissance. During this time a poet name Langston Hughes was introduced. Langston Hughes created poetry that stood out to people. It had that jazzy vibe mixed with articulate language of choice. He could seize the minds of people with the soulfulness of his writing, and depict the struggles of what was going on with blacks. Some individuals see Langston Hughes as the inspired poet of the Harlem Renaissance time. Mr. Hughes used his body of work to compare and contrast things to create the groundwork for the Harlem Renaissance period.
It is true that old days were really hard to live in, especially if the person was dark skin. This poet’s main idea of this poem “ I, too” was that, he wanted to let people know what he, and most of the African American people were going through. He wanted to let people know that color should not define your personality, and people should accept the fact that people with dark skin were humans just like others. People should have accept them and treat them equally and respectfully. Also one of the things I liked in the poem was that, he was using word sing as a expression of a word of talk, he was not really singing but he was saying it
Langston Hughes 's stories deal of conditions befalling African Americans upholding in the Harlem Renaissance. His philosophy, dissimilar culture differences between policy and practice of separating people of different races, classes, or ethnicities relations for civil right moment. Hughes 's stories speak of the African-Americans as being overlooked by a biased society. Hughes 's poetry attempts to draw attention to the tragic history of African Americans, both in Africa and the United States, a viewpoints of his family’s diversity, for example, his white grandfather had staunchly insisted on marrying the black woman he loved because of the resistance against mixed relationships with whites and other races among the United States culture,
Hughes, Langston “I, Too.” Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology. 3rd ed. Ed. Helen Vendler.
Hughes, a.k.a. Langston, a.k.a. “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed.
When reading the literature of Langston Hughes, I cant help but feel energetically charged and inspired. Equality, freedom, empowerment, renaissance, justice and perseverance, are just a few of the subject matter Hughes offers. He amplifies his voice and beliefs through his works, which are firmly rooted in race pride and race feeling. Hughes committed himself both to writing and to writing mainly about African Americans. His early love for the “wonderful world of books” was sparked by loneliness and parental neglect.
Langston Hughes (1902-1967) absorbed America. In doing so, he wrote about many issues critical to his time period, including The Renaissance, The Depression, World War II, the civil rights movement, the Black Power movement, Jazz, Blues, and Spirituality. Just as Hughes absorbed America, America absorbed the black poet in just about the only way its mindset allowed it to: by absorbing a black writer with all of the patronizing self-consciousness that that entails.
Langston Hughes was probably the most well-known literary force during the Harlem Renaissance. He was one of the first known black artists to stress a need for his contemporaries to embrace the black jazz culture of the 1920s, as well as the cultural roots in Africa and not-so-distant memory of enslavement in the United States. In formal aspects, Hughes was innovative in that other writers of the Harlem Renaissance stuck with existing literary conventions, while Hughes wrote several poems and stories inspired by the improvised, oral traditions of black culture (Baym, 2221). Proud of his cultural identity, but saddened and angry about racial injustice, the content of much of Hughes’ work is filled with conflict between simply doing as one is told as a black member of society and standing up for injustice and being proud of one’s identity. This relates to a common theme in many of Hughes’ poems: that dignity is something that has to be fought for by those who are held back by segregation, poverty, and racial bigotry.
James Mercer who we all knew as Langston Hughes, was born in Joplin, Missouri February 1, 1902. Right after Hughes was born his parents James Hughes and Carrie Langston, decided to separate. His father went his way and his mother she moved around a lot so his maternal grandmother raised him. Mary, Hughes grandmother had an impact that influenced him into writing poetry. After his grandmother passed he eventually went to stay with his mother where they got settled in Ohio. Hughes began writing poetry throughout his years in high school.
In "I, Too," Langston Hughes is obviously in conversation with the earlier poem, Walt Whitman 's "I Hear America Singing." Both poems explore the idea of American identity -- who and what is an American? What characterizes the people of this nation? The two poets, however, reach somewhat different conclusions in response to these questions.
The civil rights movement may have technically ended in the nineteen sixties, but America is still feeling the adverse effects of this dark time in history today. African Americans were the group of people most affected by the Civil Rights Act and continue to be today. Great pain and suffering, though, usually amounts to great literature. This period in American history was no exception. Langston Hughes was a prolific writer before, during, and after the Civil Rights Act and produced many classic poems for African American literature. Hughes uses theme, point of view, and historical context in his poems “I, Too” and “Theme for English B” to expand the views on African American culture to his audience members.
Langston’s poem “I, Too, Sing America” illustrates the hope of equality, ambition and freedom of an oppressed person. Metaphors and Imagery are the main elements of the structure of this poem. Hughes used throughout the whole poem, to give us an approximate image of what an abused person goes through. People will see that he is really beautiful—nothing and no one to be embarrassed by—and they will be ashamed of their earlier behavior.