Overcoming Adversity In Langston Hughes's Mother To Son

Imagine that your life started getting harder, harder, and you kept conquering the problems one by one. The poems “ Mother to Son” and “ The rose that grew from concrete” will show you how to rise above your challenges. The poem “Mother to Son” is about how you have to persevere to rise above your problems in life. And the poem “The rose that grew from concrete” is about how this rose came out of concrete showing us that anything is possible if you keep trying. The poems “ Mother to Son” and “ The rose that grew from concrete” both share the theme of rising above challenges but they do so in similar and different ways.

His mother treats him like a slave, giving him daily chores and unbelievably ruthless punishments. He has become inhuman to her as she refers to him as “It.” The only hope of survival relies on his dad, in God, or in a miracle. His story promotes the courageous human spirit and the determinate to survive.

Throughout the literary works of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Maus by Art Spiegelman, and “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, different characters deal with adversity differently. In The Glass Castle the characters must overcome family hardships. Likewise, Spiegelman writes about his father’s struggle during the Holocaust. Lastly, in “Mother to Son” the speaker informs her son about her own hardships she had to face. Challenges that characters face can impact them both negatively and positively. Characters from all three literary works deal with adversity by having courage, being resilient, and making poor choices.

In addition, the importance of risk taking in In the poem “Mother To Son” by Langston hughes is shown by the mother. in lines 3- 9 it states “It had tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor-bare. But all the tie I’se been a-climbin’ on,.” his mother had to climb on or keep going even when times were very tough. In lines lines 12-19 it says “and sometimes goin’ in the dark where there ain’t been no light. So boy dont dont you turn back. Don’t you set down on the steps ‘cause you finds it’s kinder hard. Don’t you fall now- for I’se till goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’,.” when she says “and sometimes

“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.

Langston Hughes was one of the first black men to express the spirit of blues and jazz

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.

Abandoned. The man’s father was not known by his family as he left before they could come to know him. Leaving his wife, son, and daughter alone in The Great Depression they had to develop their own strengths. The family developed flaws along with their strengths. For the son, he came to be like his father with desires to abandon his family, but the mother and daughter didn’t follow the same path and grew to support themselves differently. The truth of life those is that one is always better than the other. Some believe it is the daughter, Laura, who is stronger, but the mother, Amanda, is truly the stronger of the two. She’s constructive, sturdy natured, and observant.

Parents should lead their children and are prime examples for them and without this leadership and quality from a parent it can lead their children from not growing. With a similar fate of death Oscar and Lincoln both share this aspect, however, Lincoln lacks the support of his mom while Oscar has his mom in his life, “His mother and his abuela and his tio delivered the ultimatum and that was that”(305). Beli involves herself once Oscar gets beaten and he goes back to his old routine of following his fantasy and Oscar fails to change as the lack of parenting occurs in his life as Beli never pushes Oscar to grow and by not setting an example of herself. Although a parent is in their child’s life it doesn’t necessarily mean they are providing

The mother begin by telling her son how hard her life has been , and it has not been a "crystal stair." Then , I began to develop the metaphor of a staircase, as the mother describes the challenges in her life with symbols such as splinters, tacks , uncarpeted floor, and dark, unlit corners. She also exhorts her son not to turn back, because she never will and she wants the same to happen to her son.

A boy who is being bullied at school doesn't know what to do or who to go to. He has become depressed and a shell of who he once was. He wants to talk to someone about what he is going through. He talks to his friend. His friend says he can not give into the bullies and give them what they want. He has to get stronger for the next bullies to come. Hardships are very common among people who are struggling, but they can not give into those struggles, instead of giving in they need to get stronger. This idea can be seen in many pieces of the following poems.“Invictus” by William Ernest Henley and “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes both convey the message that people who are struggling throughout a

African-American citizens who live in the United States have experienced a tough life through personal experiences. They have struggled to obtain basic civil rights--a struggle that has spanned many centuries (Mabunda 311).

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.

The poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes is the story of a mother speaking of life’s hardships to her son. The poem starts off with the protagonist’s haunting words about the difficulty of life; however, as the story goes on, her words of despair become words of wisdom to her son on never giving up. Hughes organizes this poem by transitioning the tone from hopelessness to encouragement to convey the raw message that although life can be hard, anyone can reach their goals with effort.