The Poem ‘Mother To Son’ By Langston Hughes First Published

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.

Langston Hughes’ poem “Mother to Son,” written in 1922, tells the story of a young mother giving important life lessons to her son. It conveys the struggles and hardships that the mother was forced to endure throughout her life, while portraying her as a woman who never gave up hope and got through the hard times. The strength and resilience she shows is a testament to the power of a mother’s love and willingness to do anything for their family. Hughes is able to portray this love and emotion with the use of various literary elements, such as rhymes and metaphors.

When the mother describes the stairs as not being “crystal”, this means life hasn’t been a clear, easy path to live. Walking up the stairs is sometimes tiring and difficult, for example,”It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor.” This represents all the hardships or challenges in life that may make us want to give up. The author uses the example of the mom’s hard life as an African American in the 1920s to mid-1930s to teach the son that his life will not be easy because of racism. The whole poem is a metaphor comparing life to walking up stairs. The style of the poem also conveys this

In “Mother to Son” Langston Hughes expresses a mother’s love to her son through an enlightening conversation that will potentially teach him that life is not always going to be easy; however, he has to strive to overcome adversity in order to see the beauty in life itself. Throughout the poem, one can begin to understand that the mother is giving her son advice on life experiences that she encounters herself. The message that the speaker is trying to portray to her son is that life can be difficult but he has to keep endeavoring to be bigger than his problems. In the poem “Mother to Son” Langston Hughes depicts the endearment in a mother and son relationship as he uses metaphors, imagery, symbols, connotation, and tone in order to effectively

At the beginning of the poem, Langston imitates his mother by saying that life for her has not been “no crystal stair case”. As you can see Langston started off using a metaphor to depict the message of the hard life that his mother had.

In the poem, “Mother to Son,” there is an overall theme that is evident through diction, imagery, metaphors, and repetition. By using these concepts, Langston Hughes is able to convey the importance of never giving up, no matter what situation one is faced. The poem affects the reader by radiating inspiration and determination to persuade one to be

In the poem, Mother to Son, by Langston Hughes, the author highlights counsels a mother to her son, to be persistent, not to let discouraged by obstacles that arise in life, posing herself example, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair…But all the time I’se been a-climin’ on.”, the image of a mother lovingly, wisely talking to her son about life.The language used by the mother shows that she was not an educated person and words such as “Tacks”, “splinters”, “boards torn up” suggests that life was not so easy for this woman. Obstacles of life are often very sharp, the challenges are difficult and painful, like a ladder with all kinds of defects, which is very difficult to be ascent. The way this mother describes her journey through this life, make the reader to understand that she is a black woman who had faced a lot of obstacles in her quest to move forward in life from the whites, “And sometimes goin’ in the dark, Where there ain’t been no light. So, boy, don’t you turn back.”

In “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, a mother is giving advice to a son, who may also be seen to represent the younger generation. Since the mother has successfully conquered all the hardships life had to offer for her, she wants her son to be strong and fearless in the face of these challenges and to also thrive in life. The poem is based on the reminiscences and experiences of a mother. Hughes demonstrates that the determination to live through life without ever giving up even though there will be hardships and obstacles in your path.

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

Every parent wants to see his or her child succeed in life. In Langston Hughes’ “Mother to son,” Hughes writes from the point of view of a mother giving advice to sons. She has had a difficult and hard life. In the poem, the mother uses metaphor to compare her life to a staircase. The mother has obviously been through a lot in her life and now she prepares her son by telling him that no matter what he cannot give up.

     Although they portray two very different writing styles, Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and Langston Hughes’s “Mother to Son” have a few things in common, especially their meanings.

The theme of “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes is that perseverance is important in overcoming struggles. Langston Hughes’ decisions in the style and structure of this poem contribute to its theme of persistence. The poem is written in free verse, with blunt, simple lines. The lines are short and direct, giving the idea of a conversation, such as, “It’s had tacks in it, /And splinters, / And boards torn up” (Hughes 3). This poem is based on the idea of hope and encouragement to move forward in

Langston Hughes’ poem, “Mother to Son,” talks about the struggles of a mother trying to achieve a better life. This story fits the theme of decision in several ways. Firstly, the mother tells the son how her life hasn't been simple for her not only because of the social inequality of being a woman during the time but also the racial discrimination of being a black person. She uses stairs to symbolize the journey to a better life. How life for her “ain’t been no crystal stair.” She didn’t choose to live a difficult life… Secondly, she talks about the challenges she goes through trying to achieve a better life. The dark times she has gone through. She describes her path as stairs with tacks and splinters instead of a “crystal stair.” She chose

Robert Frost's poem “The Road Not Taken” describes a traveler faced with a choice of which one of two roads to travel. He knows not where either road might lead. In order to continue on his journey, he can pick only one road. He scrutinizes both roads for the possibilities of where they may take him in his travels. Frost's traveler realizes that regret is inevitable. Regardless of his choice, he knows that he will miss the experiences he might have encountered on the road not taken.

In lines 1 through 7 the speaker, Langston, talks about a mother describing her life to her son by using an extended metaphor. The mother first starts by saying; “Life for me [hasn’t]… been no crystal stair” (2); this means that from her experiences about her life wasn’t clear and didn’t come with an “instructions package.” The poet uses imagery to let the readers have a clear visual of his metaphor about life. The mother delineates that her life is a staircase that belongs to an old building; it has “tacks” (3) and “splinters” (4), which indicates that her life had obstacles that slowed her from reaching success. Success is when you overcome a certain problem and feel a rush of happiness that you were able to do it, and not give up. A symbol that the poet uses is “tacks” to