Langston Hughes was an important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance, and that was what he is well known for. In “Mother to Son,” Hughes uses dramatic monologue as well as colloquial phrasing. The tone of the poem is didactic, but also pleasantly hopeful. The poem has twenty lines and it is free verse. The black dialect that the mother uses throughout the poem shows the authenticity of the poem. “Mother to Song” demonstrates plenty of figurative language. A metaphor that is also repeated compares the how her life was not a crystal stair. There are many possibilities of the meaning of it such as, representing wealth, transparency, and also glamour. Also, Hughes uses imagery in line five that states, “And boards torn up.” Hughes wants us to truly try to understand all the hardship that the mother went throughout her life. A mother will always care for and encourage their children to overcome any obstacle that they are given because their love is tremendous. …show more content…
Also, we know that the mother is going to give her son a lesson about life. Another thing that we can conclude from the first line is that the she cares enough for her son, and that she wants the best thing for him. The mother is hopeful that her son will overcome any unfavorable obstacles that may occur throughout his life. She wants him to be fearless. Throughout the poem she demonstrates a lot of encouragement for her son. The mother in “Mother to Son,” has had a difficult life as stated in the second line, which states, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” Darryl Pinckney stated
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
Stanza three again shows doubtfulness about the mother’s love. We see how the mother locks her child in because she fears the modern world. She sees the world as dangers and especially fears men. Her fear of men is emphasized by the italics used. In the final line of the stanza, the mother puts her son on a plastic pot. This is somewhat symbolic of the consumeristic society i.e. manufactured and cheap.
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.
A mother is someone that would risk a speeding ticket to get her child to a hospital. A mother is someone that cooks for her family delicious food. A mother is someone that loves her children, even when they disrespect her. A mother is someone who risks all she has for her children. A mother is a HERO! The qualities of a hero are being intelligent, caring, and courageous. Two heroes that display these aspects are Odysseus from the epic The Odyssey and a modern mother. Odysseus, a soldier and a leader, on his journey back from the war of Troy, let the Cyclopes eat his men. In contrast, a modern mom saves her children by rushing to the hospital to save them.
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
staying the course. In the poem “Mother to Son” a mother tells of her persistence through life’s obstacles, encouraging her son not to give up.
She was merely teaching her son a lesson, or maybe she was scolding him, and using that as a life lesson. Either way, she was the inspiration for the poem. I was unable to locate online the reason that the poem was initially written - however, I can only assume that he is remembering a time when his mother was right, and he’s wishing he had listened. Maybe he is now older, wiser, and faced with a decision where he wants two things equally, and needs to make a decision.
Opposed to Mother to Son, the son is confused and isn’t determined to
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.
Lanston Hughes focuses more on rhythm then on rhyme, for example, the poem "The Weary Blues" reads like a blues song, which is what the poem is about. "Mother to Son" is a conversation a mother has to a child about what era life has been, and that no matter how hard life may seem, one should never give up climbing the "stairs". The poem seems to shift from good English to Black English and then back again, which to me shows...
Written by Langston Hughes, the poem “Mother to Son”, offers insight on the author's life advice that she’s giving her son. The mother, begins by telling of the hardships one may encounter in life, and then continues to explain how you cannot give up, but keep going. In this situation, the speaker is very encouraging telling how she is still struggling through her not perfect life, but one cant give in to the roadblocks they may encounter. Starting off, the author uses many different analogies to express the challenges/ problems one has to deal with, which adds a different way of reading this, giving the reader a visual picture. For example, the author says, “Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
The poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes is a poem about a mother telling her son to keep going in life and don’t give up when it gets tough because life won’t be easy just like her own. Now I believe the tone of this poem is encouraging and inspirational due to the literary techniques and figurative language. The most used figurative language used in the this poem are metaphors and imagery. One of my example of figurative language the helps establish the tone is a metaphor. The author writes “Life for me ain't been no crystal stair” This makes the tone sound like the mother has a lot of determination and her life hasn't been easy as the crystal stair represents a no problem luxury life but hers has not been a “crystal stair”.
Langston Hughes was a phenomenal poet, whose poem not only gave a glimpse into the injustices, discrimination, hardship and frustration that African American s faced during the Harlem Renaissance. The way he was able to capture those attributes and makes that the main themes of his poems; showed his ability to give the African Americans a voice and share the same issues . In his poems he uses styles such as imagery, slangs, and “analogies to emphasize the main themes of his poem and to allow it to be relatable to anyone. In the poems I too, sing America, Theme for English B, The Weary Blues, and Mother to Son they all share the common theme of discrimination and hardship that African Americans faced during the Harlem Renaissance.
In the story this young mother is pictured as a careless and weak woman who barely pays attention to her children and the people who take most part of the mother’s responsibility is everybody else in the house. In the story the two boys realize that their mother is different from other mothers because she does not act like the rest of their friend’s mothers who care about their children. The problem keeps escalating because the mother’s parents keep putting pressure on her so that she can dedicate more time to her children. I noticed that things were a little different when she invited her boyfriend to the house to have dinner with her children, a true family moment in my opinion if you ask me. At this point I come to the realization that she wants to have a family like she once did. The young mother then enters a great depression after Max and her end the relationship and that drives her to take her life