BIOGRAPHY I James Mercer Langston-Hughes is a product of Joplin, Missouri where he was born to his parents, Carrie Langston and James Hughes, on February 1, 1902. Hughes’ parents divorced after his father was not accepted into Law school and moved to Mexico. After his father’s departure, Hughes’ mother began to travel to various cities in hopes of finding better work. This caused Hughes to live with his grandmother, and then another family after his grandmother’s death in 1912. Hughes eventually met with his newlywed mom in Cleveland, Ohio, where he also began high school. In high school is where Hughes began to become one with literature, and began writing for his high school’s newspaper. Many writers at the time greatly influenced …show more content…
The poem consists of a mother explaining to her son how her life was not easy and it consisted of an indescribable amount of obstacles. The narrator uses a crystal staircase in order to contrast her experiences with life thus far. The purpose of the mother describing her hardships was due to the son’s lack of motivation and his feeling of wanting to give up on the test that life has thrown at him. When I first read the poem “Mother to Son,” I was in the the fifth or sixth grade and it was Black History Month. At the time, I wasn 't sure if it was the broken language used within the poem, or the true meaning behind what the story truly portrayed that kept me intrigued. This poem is one of the greatest pieces of literature I’ve ever read, and it touches on a very sensitive part of my life. I lost my father due to heart diseases when I was in the fourth grade, and by reading this poem within the next year or two, I was starting to accept the fact that my father passed away. Langston Hughes’ poem ensured me that my life would not be easy, but I’m still living my life with this burden on my heart. I learned through this poem that life still goes on, and I personally believe that this work provided a turning point for my mindset, and the way in which I viewed
The history of African American discrimination is a despicable part of the United States’ past. Inequality among Black Americans prompts these individuals to overcome the hardships. This endurance is valued by African Americans and people all around the world. However, the ability to strive and maintain positivity in a difficult or prejudiced situation proves to be tremendously challenging. When people give up in tough times, they deny their opportunity to succeed and grow stronger. This paper examines the techniques that manifest the struggles of racism and the importance of conquering obstacles in the following poems: Dream Deferred, I, Too and Mother to Son.
She starts here with telling her son how hard life has been for her with the mentioning of the metaphor ‘crystal stair’, which is a reference of wealth and reaching the top.
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902, to James Nathaniel Hughes, a lawyer and businessman, and Carrie Mercer (Langston) Hughes, a teacher. The couple separated shortly thereafter. James Hughes was, by his son’s account, a cold man who hated blacks (and hated himself for being one), feeling that most of them deserved their ill fortune because of what he considered their ignorance and laziness. Langston’s youthful visits to him there, although sometimes for extended periods, were strained and painful. He attended Columbia University in 1921-22, and when he died he, left everything to three elderly women who had cared for him in his last illness, and Langston was not even mentioned in his will.
In line seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen Hughes says, “Don’t you fall now– For I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’.” What Hughes expresses in these lines is that just because the stairs become hard to climb at times do not quit. One of Hughes’ most important elements is symbols in his poem “Mother to Son.” She still struggles forward, no matter what may have been the bleakest moments of her life, where there seemed to be no hope. When climbing the stairs she is “reachin’ landin’s, / and turnin’ corners, / and sometimes goin’ in the dark”. Even though these are “home like” things someone may face on a staircase, they are actually metaphors that mean things that she has encountered in her life. She says that she reaches landings, which can mean that she has come up on places where she could rest. When she says she turns corners, it is when her life changes and she has to turn away from her original path that it was on. When she says “sometimes goin’ in the dark where there ain’t been no light.” This contrasting color imagery of dark and light shows the idea that it is always dark before the dawn and bad days come before better ones and just when it might seem as if there is no relief in sight, something occurs to get rid of all of your burdens. The mother then advises her son not to give up and let life get him down just because there are a few struggles in
Langston Hughes’s “Mother to Son” was first published in Crisis magazine in 1922. In the poem, a hopeful mother warns her child that many trails will present themselves to him over the course of his life. The mother encourages her son that no matter what, he must triumph over the struggles and continue to press forward. She relates life’s rigorous journey to climbing a staircase. The mother explains how her life has not been easy, or in other words, “a staircase made of crystal” The life of the mother has been an endless struggle described as stairs with protuberant nails and fragments of wood sticking out, boards ripped up and spaces where carpet was omitted. Though she described her life as an almost unclimbable staircase, she kept moving onward. She wants her son to do as she has done and pull motivation from her severe situations and remain steady.
These sets of lines express the frustrations of a mother who worked through a hard time, and is telling her son her story. She is telling her son this is the adversity she when through to become who she is today in spirit. ...
James Mercer who we all knew as Langston Hughes, was born in Joplin, Missouri February 1, 1902. Right after Hughes was born his parents James Hughes and Carrie Langston, decided to separate. His father went his way and his mother she moved around a lot so his maternal grandmother raised him. Mary, Hughes grandmother had an impact that influenced him into writing poetry. After his grandmother passed he eventually went to stay with his mother where they got settled in Ohio. Hughes began writing poetry throughout his years in high school.
James Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. He was named after his father, but it was later shortened to just Langston Hughes. He was the only child of James and Carrie Hughes. His family was never happy so he was a lonely youth. The reasons for their unhappiness had as much to do with the color of their skin and the society into which they had been born as they did with their opposite personalities. They were victims of white attitudes and discriminatory laws. They moved to Oklahoma in the late 1890s. Although the institution of slavery was officially abolished racial discrimination and segregation persisted.
“James Mercer Langston Hughes, known as Langston Hughes was born February 2, 1902 in Missouri, to Carrie Hughes and James Hughes.” Years later his parents separated. Langston’s father moved to Mexico and became very successful, as his for mother, she moved frequently to find better jobs. As a child growing up Langston spent most of his childhood living with his grandmother named Mary Langston in Lawrence, Kansas. Mary Langston was a learned women and a participant in the civil rights Movement. When Langston Hughes was 12 years old his grandmother passed away. Langston then moved in with his mother and stepfather Homer Clark. A few months later, Langston’s mother sent him to live with her mother’s friend “Auntie” and Mr. Reed. In 1915 Langston rejoined his mother, stepfather, and stepbrother in Illinois. In 1916 the family moved again to Cleveland, Ohio.
The author of “Mother to Son”, Langston Hughes, displays the attitude of hopefulness in the poem to show that life will not be easy for the son, but he should never give up because the mother did not. The author uses literary devices like figurative language, imagery, and diction. By using these literary devices, Hughes creates a sympathetic mood in the poem in order to emotionally draw in the reader.
“I dream a world where… love will bless the earth and peace its paths adorn.” -- Langston Hughes
... a staircase that goes on indefinitely. In Mother’s speech, she never speaks of an end. However, she continues to explain that through her climbing, she has seen torn boards and barren floors. This parallels the idea in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” that Blacks will reach snags in their progress, but they must work past the snags in order to survive as well as flourish.
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.
The metaphor in this poem conjoins life, and a staircase, "Well, son, I'll tell you:/ life for me ain't been no crystal stair." The mother says to her son, that life is not an easy journey that can be stroll through.. Instead, in this passage of the poem, she tells her son that life is hard, full of stumbling blocks, but one must keep climbing, one cannot turn back or sit down, because one will catch a break, a turn, a landing, and keep going.
Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. Poems.org stated that Hughes’ parents were divorced when he was young. He was the offspring of two African American parents. His maternal grandmother raised him until he was 13. He then moved in with his mother and her husband in Cleveland. Hughes’ education consisted of studies at Columbia University. Without completing his education there, he left and took up many odd jobs. One such job included travelling abroad as a seaman. In his adult life, he lived in Washington D.C. Hughes’ poetry was influenced by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Walt Whitman, and Carl Sandburg. His love of jazz music also shaped some of his poetry (Academy of American Poets). Arnold Rampersad comments that “Hughes's sense of dedication was instilled in him most of all by his maternal grandmother.” Ramperstad also concluded that parental neglect impacted Hughes’ poetry. Langston Hughes died of prostate cancer on May 22, 1967. The glaring inequalities Hughes experienced throughout his lifetime became the subject of many of his poems.