4/13/18

In today's class, we did the same thing yesterday with symbols and themes, but applied it to a new poem called I, Too by Langston Hughes. The difference between yesterday's poem and today was that this poem had no positivity. The author had an implicit message with a darker meaning. We deciphered the poem into having a message about only few Americans achieve this American Dream, while others like African Americans are denied this dream, yet still work hard to make the dream a reality. We found in the poem that the author used phrases like "They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed— I, too, am America." This phrase supports the theme of how African Americans struggle to live in America, but one day things will change and all the struggles will end. This can apply to our lives outside because it is very important to know how a message can be interpreted literally or figuratively. One can read this poem and can get two different messages, but it's important to know how to identify which the author is actually saying by analyzing the poem, finding background information on the author, and the date that the poem was published to know which message was truly meant for the reader.