Broken Chains

Langston Hughes's poem I, Too tells the story of the mistreatment of America's African American people and proclaims that this mistreatment will become a thing of the past. Although Hughes wrote the poem in the 1920s, I,Too is written from the perspective of a black man who is still bound by the heavy chains of slavery and oppression.
 With an optimistic and almost high and mighty voice, this poem establishes the theme that the sweet taste of freedom will come for the African Americans and that African Americans are a part of America's foundation. In addition to this, Hughes's poem warns the people who discriminate against him and his people of the shame that they will feel once they "see how beautiful [he is]."

Verisimilitude fosters these themes because of the way Hughes musters up a sense of hope as a slave even though he himself has never been one.
"They send me to eat in the kitchen," suggests that the white owners of the slave want him to be unseen while they have company over. However, instead of being discouraged, he "eat[s] well," and "grow[s] strong." Hughes reveals the truth that African Americans can beat down discrimination if they keep their heads up and advance. All of this is done without telling a truth of his own experience.With this story of a slave, Langston Hughes unveils the truth that suffering will end and African Americans are also America.