How Does Langston Hughes Use Figurative Language In Mother To Son

     On the road of life, many trials arise that one must overcome to make his or her life feel complete. In Langston Hughes’s poem, “Mother to Son,” these trials are a subject of concern for one mother. Hughes’ “ability to project himself” is seen in his use of dialect, metaphors, and tone (Barksdale 3).

And the poem “Mother to Son” is about how a mother is telling her son that she had to go through rough times like her son.She says she also keeps going no matter how difficult life gets.Both poems share the theme of overcoming obstacles in life. Both authors use figurative language for example,Tupac uses a Rose and Langston Hughes uses stairs to compare them to how hard life can be to develop the theme.

“Mother to Son” , by Langston Hughes is based on the view of hope and inspiration to continue moving forward in life, regardless of difficulties, and no matter how hard life may be. The speaker in this poem is a mother who gives advice to her son. Since the mother has overcame challenges in life, she encourages her son to be fearless, face challenges and succeed in life. He includes rhetorical devices such as, figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and sound devices to make the points of being fearless, to face challenges, and succeed in life.

In the poem, “Mother to Son” harlem renaissance Langston Hughes writes of a mother’s heartbreaking journey through a never ending cycle of life through the use of figurative language and complex structure. The reader is able to fully receive the message the author has provided.

He explains, “I was only an American Negro—who had loved the surface of Africa—but I was not Africa. I was Chicago and Kansas City and Broadway and Harlem. I was not what she wanted me to be” (Hughes as quoted in Cobb 44). Hughes wants to make sure people are aware that the life and culture of African Americans differ drastically from the romantic view of the Negro in Africa. In his poem “Mother to Son,” Hughes provides the story of struggle, poverty overcame by hard work, and hope for a more dignified life for the entire African American people (Niemi 1). Hughes recognizes that despite being oppressed, the black community is strong enough to empower itself with determination to succeed. When discussing working-class life, Hughes consistently “asserts blacks as fully complex, fully human, and equals in the American democratic experiment” and does not play into the thought that blacks should be kept down (Sanders 107). Langston Hughes’ “concern for the lives and oppression of poor and working-class blacks” is apparent in most of his work (Sanders 107). Through his writing he makes the population aware of the deep-set oppression put upon the black community.

Every mother would like to see her child succeed in life. The following passage from the poem, "Mother to Son", by Langston Hughes demonstrates the love and concern a mother has for her son. She teaches him using her own life as an example; her life as a climb up a staircase. The imagery from the advice given in the stanza is explicit and poignant:

Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes wrote poems imparting to young people. Brooks encourages her audience to continue to trudge forward even if the situation is grim in the poem entitled “Speech to the Young. . .” The author stated, “Even if you are not ready for the day it cannot always be night.” The author is trying to say that one cannot always just wallow in their problems. Instead, on must overcome their hurdles no matter how high they may be. One must overcome their obstacles sooner or later because time does not stop for anyone. Hughes takes a parental stand in “Mother to Son” encouraging readers to persevere even when faced with adversity. The author advised, “So boy, don’t turn your back. Don’t you set down on the steps.” The author

In “Mother to Son”, Langston Hughes informed us of a mother whose life was horrible, according to her, and she doesn’t want her son to make the same mistakes. The poem states, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”(Langston Hughes). The mother is thinking about her past life. For this reason, she is limiting herself to her past and not thinking that she can have a future for herself. Langston Hughes wrote, “It's

In the poem “Mother to Son”, Langston Hughes uses the deep connection between a mother and her son and descriptive rhetoric to bring hope and inspire the African American people to fight for their rights.The author most likely wrote the poem for the African American audience because it is written in an African American slang during the Harlem Renaissance. However, any minority group can relate to this creation because it is about people who are going through a difficult time. Hughes describes the arduous reality of life; one in which people have to overcome challenges and face their worst fears in order to reach the top of the ladder. He is telling the African American people that they cannot give up during the hard times. Moreover, the author utilized the deep connection between a mother and her son to make the poem more dramatic. Since mothers are known to have a soft and caring voice towards their children. They traditionally will do anything for their kids. This drama appeals to the readers and gives them hope for the future. The future consists of fulfilling their American dream. The American cream stands for the idea that every person should have an equal opportunity to achieve prosperity and success through hard work and determination. Next, Langston Hughes hoped to encourage the African American people to fight for their rights. To drive his point home, the author described his journey through time in painstaking detail, which helps the readers connect to the

In the poem Mother to Son, Hughes tells the tale of a mother speaking to her son about life and the hardships that one must face to make it in the world. Hughes uses extended metaphor to

At times, our lives can be difficult, and in the poem Mother to Son by Langston Hughes he expresses this by using a mother giving her son advice about life. During this advice the author uses many different literary devices such as metaphors, imagery, and diction. He uses these devices to compare life to broken stairs, and how life can be challenging. As the mother says "Sometimes you just have to keep on going," and this Mother is right even though life is a little rocky time to time you cannot give cannot give up because if you give up on life, life will give up on you.

Who ever said life was going to be easy ? This poem, titled “Mother to Son” was written by Langston Hughes in the twentieth century. The poem depicts a mother telling her son that he cannot give up no matter how hard life gets that needs to keep trying. She describes how hard the path to success is and will be and she tells her son not to give up hope, to keep trying to be successful. She believes he should never give up when he is faced with a challenge.

Langston Hughes, an inspirational African American writer, in his poem “Mother to Son” (1922) insinuates that life is a series of challenges and difficulties. Hughes establishes this pronouncement by first depicting a metaphor with his comparison of life and a set of broken wooden or crystal stairs, expressing how the broken wooden stairs represents hardships and how crystal stairs portray a smoother life; second, by providing imagery of a boy sitting down on the steps of the stairs as the mother is scolding her son, exhibiting how the son has given up on the task in front of him while his mother is scolding him, displaying her motherly affection; and third, by using regionalism to indicate the difficulties of the mother and the son and how

There is no mystery in “Mother to Son” as to who is speaking to whom. In fact, the title of the poem alone provides all of the exposition needed to understand that this piece is set up as a mother’s advice to her son. Presumably, this poem represents the advice that Langston Hughes may have received from his own mother. The imagery of a staircase opens up the work, which begins, “Well, son, I’ll tell you: / Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” (Hughes 1-2). Line two, in particular, immediately conjures several associations in the mind of the reader. First, many audiences will be familiar with the concept of a “stairway to heaven,” as such a proverbial structure is mentioned often through world history in works such as the Bible and other

Mother to Son is a poem that was written by Langston Hughes, and was published in 1922. Throughout this poem, Langston Hughes portrays a mother speaking to her son and the readers to bestow her knowledge, encouragement and wisdom from the life that she lived.