Mother To Son Theme Essay

In “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, Maya Angelou uses her personal experiences growing up as an African American female to present her primary claim that even in trying times there is something to be grateful for. Angelou’s secondary claims are mainly comprised of stories from her upbringing as well as the description of her grandmother’s attitude even though they are living through times of extreme poverty. In Each of the stories she speaks of one circumstance that seems completely unbearable but yet ends with some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. This structure can also be seen in her description of her grandmother’s outlook on life. By formatting her essay in this way, Angelou is able to develop pathos as well as ethos with the audience.

     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).

Langston Hughes and I have many things in common.. In “Theme for English B” Hughes talks about his truth, how he is very aware that he has a different skin color, but that is not what he thinks he should be identified by. What identifies him are the accumulation of the things in his life. I can relate with this because although I do not feel like I am discriminated for my race, I do feel like I'm discriminated against for not being like those of my race. I also know that certain points of one’s life shapes it. It is difficult to know what you are suppose to be when you are a the first born generation in a country. Much like Hughes at the time that he wrote the piece, I too am young and am eager to grow, while also being oblivious to what come

Langston Hughes is an extremely successful and well known black writer who emerged from the Harlem Renaissance (“Langston Hughes” 792). He is recognized for his poetry and like many other writers from the Harlem Renaissance, lived most of his life outside of Harlem (“Langston Hughes” 792). His personal experiences and opinions inspire his writing intricately. Unlike other writers of his time, Hughes expresses his discontent with black oppression and focuses on the hardships of his people. Hughes’ heartfelt concern for his people’s struggle evokes the reader’s emotion. His appreciation for black music and culture is evident in his work as well. Langston Hughes is a complex poet whose profound works provide insight into all aspects of black

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:

The poet, Langston Hughes, was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. Hughes’s grandmother was an activist for women’s education and rights. Both of Hughes’s parents were mulattos, meaning he had interracial maternal and paternal grandparents. Hughes writes about this situation in his poem titled, “Mulatto.” Hughes states things like “...a black mother and an uncaring white father” (Slovey and Howes 211). By using many writing styles and tools, Hughes gets his point across easier by making the reader feel like they’re in the moment of the poem. In Hughes’s poem, “Mother to Son,” a mother offers wisdom to her son and the younger generations using her way of language and old slang that connect them to each other’s life and hardships.

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

Similar to how the great painter Pablo Picasso paints a picture using colors on a canvas, an author paints an image in the reader 's mind through the style that they can write. The way an author chooses to write their novel can help the reader understand the author 's personality, beliefs, and general lifestyle. Every author who has ever written anything from a letter to a friend to a novel has their own personal writing style unique to their author that can be observed through their works. Maya Angelou 's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried are no exception to this rule, and each show the similarities and differences in the author 's personality.

"Tomorrow, I 'll be at the table When company comes." States Black writer Langston Hughes. America is great, isn 't it? This country was built on Liberty, and is a beacon to the rest of the world to which refugees can traverse towards. However, the course of actions in this country has not always been rainbows and sunshine, nor is it today even. There was a time in this wonderful country when Liberty seemed to dwindle, and the hope for our country 's equality was slight. During this time, lived a unique writer by the name of Walt Whitman, who awed the country with his patriotic voice which he embedded into his literature. One of his most famous poems, I Hear America Singing, touched the heart of the American People by recognizing the many

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.”

Let me provide you with some examples: In Mother To Son , you can see the hardships that the mother explains to her son , which symbolises the struggle african-american people face in their daily

Before I explain my take on what "identity" means in Langston Hughes works, I would like explain a little about a man who happened to be one of the most recognizable names in African- American literature, and the struggle he faced – as a writer and mostly as an African American. A brief glimpse into our darkest days and description of his life and about him will help elucidate the background, and his style of writing. Jordan stated African Americans journey and identity in the Americans started on the wrong no “Over a period of more than three centuries, in the slave ships of the Middle Passage and the plantations of the American South, peoples from many nations of what is now called West and Central Africa, brought together under conditions of extreme brutality, reinvented themselves as one people and they renamed themselves ‘African’, ‘Coloured People’ and ‘Negro’. Later, from end of the nineteenth century to the first few decades of the twentieth century, mostly in northern urban centres of the USA, the descendants of the slaves reinvented themselves again, this time as the ‘New Negro’”(848-891).

Langston Hughes is famous for writing a numerous of works. But the poem entitled “Theme for English B”, is one of the most intriguing by far. The poem discusses of a student (perhaps Hughes) being asked by his instructor to write a page that is true of himself. By preceding to do so, Hughes realizes that what is true for him and what’s true for the instructor are two different truths. It’s different because it is in the realm of racial separation. As a result, Langston Hughes portrays a common, determined, and divided state of mind throughout the poem, which also represents the phases in overcoming racial divide and oppression.

In the poem ¨Mother to Son,¨ by Langston Hughes , the author uses stylistic techniques such as diction and repetition to create meaning for the reader . The poem ¨Mother to Son¨ is        about a mother telling her son that life is not going to be easy and there are going to be lots of          challenges in the way . The first stylistic technique  the author uses effectively is diction .     My first example of stylistic technique creates meaning is diction . In the texts she uses diction like ¨I'se been a-climbin' on, And reachin' landin's, And turnin' corners,¨ the way she uses the apostrophe at the end of the words and puts the dash to attach a to climbing shows a country like accent .

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).