1. Dinner Guest: Me
Langston Hughes
Gracie Cooper

3. Langston Hughes Born -February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri
Died May 22, 1967 at age 65 in New York City
Born to Carrie (Caroline) Mercer Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes
Earned a degree from Lincoln University in 1929
Mother was a second grade teacher and father left to try and escape racism in America, went to Mexico and Cuba

4. Dinner Guest: Me
I know I am
The Negro Problem
Being wined and dined,
Answering the usual questions
That come to white mind
Which seeks demurely
To Probe in polite way
The why and wherewithal

5. Dinner Guest: Me
Of darkness U.S.A.--
Wondering how things got this way
In current democratic night,
Murmuring gently
Over fraises du bois,
"I'm so ashamed of being white."

6. Dinner Guest: Me
The lobster is delicious,
The wine divine,
And center of attention
At the damask table, mine.
To be a Problem on
Park Avenue at eight
Is not so bad.
Solutions to the Problem,
Of course, wait.

7. T2 This poem is about how Hughes went out to dinner after he got famous for his writing
Dinner Guest: Me
I know I am
The Negro Problem
Being wined and dined,
Answering the usual questions
That come to white mind
Which seeks demurely
To Probe in polite way
The why and wherewithal
rhyme
characterized by shyness and modesty; reserved

8. Paraphrase
What this poem is really saying is that the only reason that those people are having dinner with him is because he is famous, if he were just some other black guy, they wouldn’t ask his name let alone ask him to have a fancy dinner with them.

9. Dinner Guest: Me
Of darkness U.S.A.--
Wondering how things got this way
In current democratic night,
Murmuring gently
Over fraises du bois,
"I'm so ashamed of being white."
how a black man
could be famous
Are they really? Or are they jealous?

10. Dinner Guest: Me
The lobster is delicious,
The wine divine,
And center of attention
At the damask table, mine.
To be a Problem on
Park Avenue at eight
Is not so bad.
Solutions to the Problem,
Of course, wait.
He would have been the problem if he wasn’t famous
and we still are waiting for everyone to get along

11. Attitude
The speaker in the poem was the author, Langston Hughes and the subject he was speaking on was how once he got famous, he had white people talking to him and inviting him to dinner but if he wasn’t famous they wouldn’t even make eye contact with him.

12. Shifts
There aren’t many punctuations marks within the poem but there is a lot of irony in how he is talking.
And center of attention
At the damask table, mine
You can tell he was surprised that he was the center of attention but at the same time proud of it

13. Theme
The theme of this poem is acceptance. Even though Hughes had to become famous before he could be accepted, he was still invited to a fancy dinner with white people.