"I, Too, Am America"

It takes a long time to hand-craft a table. The sheer amount of work that presses into one solid piece of wood, shaping it, contorting it, and expecting it to become a set four-legged product of life is unimaginably colossal. This process, however diversified, is a product of society. Society shapes, twists, smooths, and forces a table into a set design. The trivialized kitchen table is unadorned. Its ebony surface reflects the ideals of those who sit around it and dictate. The reflective surface, slightly marred by scars and imprints, throws distorted images across its exterior. Yet, this lovingly polished table reflects not only one color, but many, ranging from the blase white to a rich mahogany. "I, Too" believes in a unity that such a table can only give. The table top is for sharing experiences, life-changing moments, moreover, equality that is everlasting. Everyone has to eat at a table. This seemingly prosaic moment is a monumental experience everyone goes through. The verisimilitude fostered by this eloquent poem is brought together through this extended metaphor between the united kitchen table and the United States of America. This table's surface is scratched by the similar experiences like segregation and marginalization that all the population has at one time been through. Langston Hughes effectively displays his theme of equality in unity at the ordinary kitchen table of America.