I, Too: Symbols | SparkNotes

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

The Darker Brother

In the second stanza, the speaker refers to himself as “the darker brother” (line 2). This phrase refers specifically to his marginalized position in the white household where he works as a servant. In this context, the speaker feels both included in and excluded from the family. He’s included insofar as the family treats him like a sibling, a “brother.” However, his “darker” skin also marks him as other. This mark of otherness leads to his exclusion from the family in certain situations, such as when company comes over for dinner. Thus, being “the darker brother” entails existing on the margins of the family, almost but not quite fully belonging. The speaker occupies a similarly marginal position in relation to American society at large. Indeed, we could understand the household as a figurative stand-in for U.S. society. Just as the speaker is less than a full member of the family, he’s also less than a full American citizen. When considered in this light, the speaker’s position as “the darker brother” comes to have a clear symbolic meaning. That is, it symbolizes his status as a second-class citizen.

The Kitchen

The kitchen is a symbolic space of exclusion in “I, Too.” As the speaker explains in the second stanza, whenever company comes over for dinner, the white family he works for will “send [him] to eat in the kitchen” (line 3). This act of isolation and exclusion serves to maintain a strict power hierarchy between the white family members and the Black servants. Whereas white people enjoy the luxury and prestige of eating in a formal dining room, Black people must eat hidden from view, in the space where the food was prepared. In this sense, the kitchen isn’t just a space of exclusion. It’s also a space of labor—and more specifically of feminized labor, since in the early twentieth century food preparation was widely considered women’s work. In other words, the kitchen is a symbolic space where the speaker is excluded, made to feel inferior, and even emasculated. That said, there’s also a flipside to the kitchen. By hiding the speaker from view when company comes, it gives him shelter and enables him to develop himself in crucial ways. As he puts it: “But I laugh, / And eat well, / And grow strong” (lines 5–7). Understood in this way, the kitchen becomes a space of secret empowerment.

The Dinner Table

English speakers will likely be familiar with the idiomatic expression, “a seat at the table.” In everyday speech, this expression refers to a sense of meaningful inclusion. To have a seat at the table means to have a real opportunity to voice your opinion on a matter, or to influence decisions that will impact you and your community. It is precisely such an opportunity that the speaker of “I, Too” lacks. The central conflict of the poem circles around the drama that ensues when company comes over for dinner at the white household where the speaker, a Black man, works as a servant. On a typical night, it appears as if the white family invites the speaker to eat with them. But when company comes, the family forces the speaker to eat in the kitchen. This exclusion leads the speaker to imagine a time, just around the corner, when he will eat at the table no matter what:

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.

In these lines (lines 8–10), the dinner table emerges as a powerful symbol of the type of inclusion and equality the speaker longs for. Figuratively, the dinner table represents American society, which continues to deny the speaker a meaningful voice.

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