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How Does Langston Hughes Use The Phrase 'Crystal Stair'?

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Multiple authors and poets have displayed the challenges and hardships of life through their work. Langston Hughes is a poet who is known for his work, such as “Mother To Son”. “Mother To Son” is a poem that is constructed as a conversation between a mother and her son. The mother tells her son about the challenges she has faced throughout her life. Then she continues on saying that despite the challenges, she has never given up. Later on, she advises and encourages her son to strive and keep trying. The author uses stylistic techniques to emphasize the conflict. The conflict found in the poem is internal. The mother has faced multiple obstacles and struggles throughout her life. In the poem “Mother To Son”, by Langston Hughes, the phrase “crystal stair” is the most powerful phrase, because the connotation ties to the message and the conflict of the poem. …show more content…

In the second line of the poem the narrator states “Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.” She uses the phrase to represent her life as a stair and to compare it against crystal. The phrase “crystal stair” means a stair made out of crystal. The definition of crystal is a highly transparent glass. And a stair is a set of steps leading from one to another. While crystal represents luxury and simplicity, which the mother’s life is not, the stair portrays her lifetime. The phrase has a positive connotation since it represents comfort and high living. When the both words come together they are used as a metaphor to illustrate the mother’s grueling and troubled life. In the 3rd and 4th line of the poem , the narrator describes her uneasy life by stating “It's had tacks in it… And splinters”. The tacks and the splinters connect to the conflict, because both terms display the struggles the mother has faced. The phrase “crystal stair” is a comparison of life, which emphasizes the conflict and the struggle the mother has

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