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The importance and influence of perseverance
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What does this poem suggest to you about adversity and its effect on the individual, on his or her way to success? Desire for success is a very powerful force. One must overcome numerous adversities. In the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, the poet illustrates the effects of hardships on the way to success. The mother advises her son to never give up no matter how hard it is, keep on persevering despite all the difficulties he has to face in life. In my experience, I understand how hard it is to overcome adversity facing one’s life without giving up in search of greatness. Success can push one to great heights and to climb to the top. In the poem “Mother to Son,” the mother faces adversity to climb up the crystal stairs, “And splinters, All my life I was picked on for how I looked and I could not make any friends. I tried and tried to make friends, but it was pointless nobody wanted to be friends with me. One day I just wanted to give up I told myself why am I even trying, I know the end result. My mom told me to keep on persevering and one day I will have someone who wants to be friends with me. So I tried and tried to make friends, but they keep on picking on me. But I kept on persevering and as time went by, there was a new student in my class who came from Winnipeg and she wanted a friend as bad as I did. So I introduced myself and we got to know each other it turns out that we have a lot in common. If I was to give up I would have never had a friend. So when life is tuff never ever give up or else you would never achieve success or ambition. Adversity can seem hopeless, but never give up then you will achieve success. In the poem “Mother to Son” the mother has gone through lots of hardships, but she is determined to achieve success. And she tells her son to persevere and never give up. No matter how tempting it is to go back down the stairs, he needs to persevere and climb to achieve success. I have gone through adversity and I wanted to give up, but I am glad that I had not given up, because if I was to give up, I would have never made an amazing
Another fitting quote from the text is something the mother says at the end of the poem, ¨So boy, don’t you turn back. [...] Don’t you fall now For I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’, And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair¨ (Hughes lines 14-20) This shows the Mother's purpose in telling this story. The mother says to the son, using her stair metaphor, to keep persevering through life, as she had.
In the metaphoric sense they endured the travel from their homeland to the unknown, which was brave of them. Mother to Son starts off with the mother referencing to the past by saying “Well son, I’ll tell you:/ Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” She is alluding to her past and how it has been tumultuous, but she is still
Most people throughout the world strive for success in each task they take on, and along with this, many reasons contribute to why they succeed or not. If a person does not succeed, they may automatically blame themselves because of their level of strength. Others may blame themselves for not having enough knowledge about what they are trying to succeed at. The real reason that people may not succeed, however, is their lack of determination and happiness throughout his/her journey that is demonstrated in the book Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. Both knowledge and strength combine to help a person achieve the American Dream because of the will and determination that arises from knowing what a person has and knowing what
Everyone has them, people that raised them from when they were born, in most cases a mother and father. The memoir ‘’Salvation’’ by Langston Hughes and the essay ‘’Mothers’’ by Anna Quindlen awakened me to explore my relationship with my own parents. ‘’Salvation’’ gave me this over powering feeling that I knew exactly how young Langston felt sitting in that pew. I felt that I could also, to an extent, connect with the narrator in ‘’Mothers.’’ ‘’Salvation’’ and ‘’Mothers’’ both created emotional reactions from me; while ‘’Salvation’’ aroused feelings of vulnerability, ‘’Mothers’’ exposed questions about my parents.
First, the author uses Figurative language to develop the theme by the mother uses a metaphor to describe her life and how difficult it was. It says, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters. And boards were torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor—Bare.“This shows the author use Figurative language to develop the theme of You have to rise above the obstacles because life is going to throw obstacles at you and you have to try to avoid them. This shows the theme because instead of going back down the staircase where there are no problems you have to push through to get over the problem. Second, the author uses Symbol to develop the theme by using the staircase that represents life and life is hard and there will be a ton of thing that try to push us down and just try to stop us It says, “ I’ve been a-climbing’ on, And reachin’ landings, And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’ in the dark Where there ain’t been no light. “This shows the author used Symbol to develop the theme of You have to rise above the obstacles because the mother kept going non-stop. This is important to notice because there will be a ton of thing that try to push us down and just try to stop us. To, sum up, the author of “Mother to Son” revealed the theme through Figurative language and
...ke up and have a better one. The meaning you get from reading this poem is just great. It saying be strong and keep moving because tomorrow is another day to have a great day and not all days will be easy and great but you have to remember that every day is a new one to make it better. This poem is a stanza and the tone is mad but just by reading it anyone can understand why.
enable us to understand the moral of the poem. Which is work hard and you will receive you goals and never give up.
In Langston Hughes poem, Mother to Son, Hughes illustrates a strong-willed mother who reminds her son of her failures and how her failures have not stopped her- but instead helped her to continue striving. The mother continues by telling him about how her life has been difficult, telling him “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair,” however she explains that those obstacles are not only bearable, but are also worth struggling against. Langston Hughes uses elements such as; dramatic monologue, diction, and imagery to portray the life of a woman who overcame adversity.
In life, most people always work hard and put forth their best effort to make their future life a success following the clique theme of never giving up. As characters grow in a story, they tend to learn that with dedication towards getting a better life it has to come with always pushing your hardest to get out of the struggles that they are in. In Michael Oher's, “I Beat the Odds”, and John Steinbeck’s, “The Pearl”, the two main characters never gave up to help themselves and their family while they both demonstrate that their determination to success paid off. Michael, the main character in “I Beat the Odds”, had a rough beginning to his life with not having a reliable mother to care for him and always living away from home similarly to Kino,
Form and meaning are what readers need to analyze to understand the poem that they are evaluating. In “Mother to Son”, his form of writing that is used frequently, is free verse. There is no set “form”, but he gets his point across in a very dramatic way. The poem is told by a mother who is trying to let her son know that in her life, she too has gone through many frustrations just like what her son is going through. The tone of this poem is very dramatic and tense because she illustrates the hardships that she had to go through in order to get where she is today. She explains that the hardships that she has gone through in her life have helped her become the person that she has come to be. Instead of Hughes being ironic, like he does in some of his poems, he is giving the reader true background on the mother’s life. By introducing the background, this helps get his point across to the reader in a very effective way. In this poem there are many key words which help portray the struggles that the mother is trying to express to her son. The poem is conveyed in a very “down to earth” manner. An example of this is, “Life for me ain’t been a crystal stair (462).” This quote shows the reader that the mom is trying to teach the son a lesson with out sugar coating it. She wants her son to know that throughout her life has had many obstacles to overcome, and that he too is going to have to get through his own obstacles no matter how frustrating it is. Her tone throughout the poem is stern telling the boy, “So boy, don’t turn your back (462).” The poems tone almost makes the reader believe that the mother is talking to them, almost as if I am being taught a valuable lesson.
A poem titled, “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, shows perseverance, not by direct context, but rather by the way Hughes was able to tell the audience that mother’s life was difficult by comparing it to a stairway. One of the best quotes out of the story is, “Don’t you fall now- Fir I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’, And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” The quote centers around the idea, that the mother’s life has not been easy, but that she has also refused to be beat and “thrown down the stairs”. She tells her son, that he shouldn’t give up, because she was able to make it through all the difficult times in her life, and that even now she continues to climb her stairs. This connects with the theme of perseverance because of the mother’s determination to not fall, and continue
The speaker starts the poem by saying “Well, son, I’ll tell you:” (1), this is the speaker’s way of getting her sons attention. It is easy to relate to as one can relate to his or her mother trying to grab his or her attention. In the next line the speaker introduces a metaphor to set up the next few lines by saying “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” (2). A crystal stair represents life without a struggle as it is clear and life without struggles should be smooth. From the next few lines it is easy to see that this is meant as a metaphor because the speaker’s life had been the total opposite. The speaker builds on the metaphor in the following lines by showing how rugged the steps are in order to show how hard her life has
While Hughes and Wilbur share a similar message in their poems, their points of view are very different. Hughes uses a first-person narrator, a mother speaking directly to her son. The title of the poem itself, "Mother to Son," states this point of view. The reader is listening in on a one-on-one conversation. The opening line introduces the mother's monologue: "Well, son, I'll tell you." The point of view stays consistent as the mother describes what life's stairway has been like for her: "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair" (2 and 20), and urges her son to do as she has done: "I'se still climbin'" (19). She addresses her son directly throughout the poem, calling him "son" (1), "boy" (14), and "honey" (18). The poem is entirely in the mother's speaking voice, with the informalities of someone speaking privately to a close relative and the grammatical errors of someone who is probably not well educated.
Also, “and sometime goin’ in the dark, where there ain’t been no light”, suggests how bad times must have been for her in life and what she must of done to make ends meet. To conclude, the mother uses the line “ I’se been climbin; and life for me ain’t been no crystal stair,” which is repeated throughout the poem, deliberately to express the fact that she has never given up in the face of adversity. The poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes tells the story of a mother showing her son that he should always strive to achieve the best no matter what life throws your
Pele, a Brazilian athlete, previously stated, “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” This quote relates to my past and current circumstances due to the fact that my Mother previously as well as presently worked multiple jobs in order to set me up for success in anyway possible. Being brought up in a household where nothing was impossible and hard work was and still is greatly encouraged, has turned me into the young man I am today. Witnessing my Mom’s work ethic has kept me motivated through challenges, such as weight loss and learning to live a healthier lifestyle, getting my first real job, as well as learning how to balance my priorities with work and my education.