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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Shamefulness of Racism

One key theme of “I, Too” is the shamefulness of racism. A lot of poetry and fiction in American literature have explored themes related to the shame that racism causes for its victims. But Hughes reverses the script, insisting that racism casts a pall of shame on its perpetrators. In the poem’s third stanza, the speaker insists that one day soon he will refuse to eat in the kitchen when company comes. Instead, he’ll take his rightful seat at the dinner table and share in the meal like an equal. At that point, no one will be willing to enforce the usual racial hierarchy by telling him to go back into the kitchen. Then, in the fourth stanza (lines 15–17), he adds:

     Besides,
     They’ll see how beautiful I am
     And be ashamed. 

Here, the speaker imagines that by asserting his own value, he will force the white family he serves to see him as more fully human and to treat him as their equal. It’s at precisely this point that the theme of shame emerges. The speaker posits that when he affirms his own intrinsic value, the white family will be forced to confront their racism directly and see the harm it has done.

The Power of Self-Confidence

Despite occupying an inferior position in the white household where he works, the speaker actively cultivates his self-confidence. The speaker suggests as much in the second stanza, where he describes how he resists the frustration of being confined to the kitchen when company comes. Defiantly, he says: “But I laugh, / And eat well, / And grow strong” (lines 5–7). Even as the kitchen represents a place of exclusion, the speaker insists on its ability to serve as a space of secret empowerment. It’s precisely this empowerment that leads into the second stanza, where the speaker confidently declares his intention to take his rightful place at the dinner table (lines 8–14):

     Tomorrow,
     I’ll be at the table
     When company comes.
     Nobody’ll dare
     Say to me,
     “Eat in the kitchen,”
     Then. 

Crucially, the speaker refuses to wait for an invitation to dinner. Instead, he has gathered enough confidence and courage to take the seat that rightfully belongs to him. It should be noted that the speaker has not yet asserted himself in the way he imagines in the poem. Indeed, he’s still projecting what he will do “tomorrow.” Even so, the very act of imagining his confrontation with the white family helps generate the speaker’s confident and assured tone.

America Is Divided But Still One

The speaker of “I, Too” understands that America has a deep racial divide, but he also implies that, despite their differences, the American people still constitute one nation. As a Black man who works as a servant in a white household, the speaker has personal experience of America’s racial division. But despite being treated like a second-class citizen, he doesn’t reject the nation that has long excluded him. Instead, he holds firm to his belief in America’s value and in his ability to contribute to that value. This explains why he opens the poem by explicitly evoking his relationship to the country. He declares: “I, too, sing America” (line 1). Though excluded and denigrated by the majority-white society, the speaker insists that he’s just as invested in the country’s future as anyone else. He renews this point in the poem’s final line: “I, too, am America” (line 18). Here, the speaker most clearly evokes the theme that America is divided but one. The very fact that he must assert that he, too, belongs in America, shows his recognition that the country is divided. Even so, he concludes with a unifying gesture that emphasizes the nation’s singularity: he, too, is America.

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