How Does Langston Hughes Use Metaphors In Mother To Son

Although these are “homely” things someone may face on a staircase, they actually mean things that she has encountered in her life (Emanuel 148). She says that she reaches landings, which means that she has come up on place where she could rest. When she says she turns corners, it is when her life changes and she has to turn away from her original path. Her final comparison is when she goes in the dark, which are times in her life when she does not know what she can do to help herself. The metaphors in this poem show a conflict in the mother’s life and makes the poem seem complete.

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.

Contrast to a crystal stair, the mother climbs the stairs with boards that are torn up. In life, not only is it hazardous for a person to climb a staircase with boards that are torn up but also very deadly. There are usually yellow cautions signs to warn people to avoid such stairways. But the mother has no such pleasure because she has to climb such stairs in order to endure in her already troubled life. For example, although it was dark, and dangerous to be out, the mother does not have a choice of not going to work because she must work to pay her bills. The tacks, the splinters, the torn up boards, all are used to relate the hardships of the mother's life to the hard times of climbing up tattered stairs.

"Life is a system of half-truths and lies, Opportunistic, convenient evasion( Langston Hughes)." In Langston Hughes' poem "Mother to Son" an ever enduring mother shares her gritty truths and revelations with her discouraged son. She uses the comparison of life to a dilapidated stair case to display hidden inconsistencies of equality and fairness. Poet Langston Hughes uses a concoction of diction, figurative language, hyperbole and symbolism to clearly express the every day realities in the lives of

An Explication of Langston Hughes ' "Mother to Son" Langston Hughes once stated in his own words that his whole purpose for writing was, "to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America." In the poem "Mother to Son", he denotes his belief on racism in America. In "Mother to Son", a mother is giving advice to her son about life from her perspective and experiences. She wants her son to keep striving on what he believes and to have a more prosperous life than what she had.

With how challenging our lives are today, it is critical that we receive encouragement every once in awhile to help push forward. This idea is shown in the poem written by Langston Hughes. Encouragement that comes from the mother in the poem allows the son to realize he is not the only person struggling in life, and renews his strength for the future. In the poem, “Mother to Son”, Langston Hughes uses erratic sentence structure and engaging language to allow the Mother, of the poem, to encourage her Son.

W. Clement Stone, a well known businessman and book author once said, “Like success, failure is many things to many people. With positive mental attitude, failure is a learning experience, a rung on the ladder, and a plateau at which to get your thoughts in order to prepare to try again”. This quote epitomizes the central idea behind Mother to Son by Langston Hughes. Taking slow and careful steps as you walk up the stairs filled with obstacles and distractions, is a perfect correlation of succeeding and failing through every step you take in life. This illustration of succeeding and failing with every step taken is a perfect way to gain experience.

Langston Hughes was a great part of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s. He was a poet who wrote about life in America from a black person’s perspective. For the majority of his poems were written when he has at his worst which explains why nearly all of them are about pain and struggles. Furthermore, Mother to Son is a poem Hughes wrote about a mother who has already experienced life; she has gone through the roughest times but has maintained to stand tall. In the poem, the mother constantly tells her son that life will be tough, but giving up will only create a harder situation so he has to keep going just like she did.

Throughout the poem, the mother explains to her son the conflicts she has endured. The mother uses a metaphor to explain. She starts off by stating, “It’s[life] had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor...” In that quote, the mother explains that she had had to deal with less than ideal situations, like worn down houses.

The poet has used device of anaphora in that “And” is used at the beginning of many of the lines. In order to emphasize the idea that the mother’s life was not ideal and perfect like a crystal stair, a line is repeated twice: “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” Enjambment is used throughout poem as, “And splinters,/ And boards torn up.” The language is unpretentious and

In the poem “Mother to Son” by renowned poet Langston Hughes, a beautiful message of perseverance is delivered from a parent to a child. Life is not always easy but through its journey does one really begin to learn who they really are. This well written poem develops a picture for the reader as it walks you through the eyes of a mother to her son. The mother does not come from much and has experienced quite a bit of pain throughout her path. Far from being discouraged for what life has laid out for her she remains optimistic as she provides words of wisdom to her child.

Life is never a straight path to where a person wants to go, it is more like a set of stairs where every step is a new obstacle that they have to overcome. In the poem, “Mother to Son,” it talks about the difficulties in life but to never give up. Langston Hughes, the author of the poem, uses the analogy of life to stairs, the fact that life constantly has new battles, and the idea of never giving up to emphasize this theme. In the poem, the mother compares life to a set of rickety stairs.

It appears that Langston Hughes message in the poem is to be optimistic when dealing with hard times and how the struggles of everyday life should not prevent you from accomplishing more in life. The line "Life for me ain 't been no crystal stair." (Langston 2) was stated in the start and the conclusion of the poem. It makes it clear to the reader that the mother has

For the past few weeks, I have chosen poems which are extremely well known and regarded for my poetry response journals. This week I picked “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes. Without even reading the first line of the poem, the writer makes it blatantly apparent who both the speaker and listener are. The poem was written by Hughes himself, but is from the perspective of his mother, encouraging her son to push forward even if he encounters obstacles in his path. Based on my knowledge of Hughes and the time in which his mother grew up, many of the “tacks” (3) and “splinters” (4) she has encountered may have been due to poverty or racial injustices. The diction and syntax used also suggest that her education level is well below par, but she has