In the short poem “Mother to Son,” written by Langston Hughes, the tales tells of a mother describing her life-s journey to her son. The mother describes her life of being filled with many obstacles and much difficulty. She puts her life story in terms, of a metaphorical wooden staircase and the obstacles she face along the way are symbolized by splinters, tacks, and broken boards in her life-s staircase. Yet, in this one-sided conversation to her son, she uses her story and her struggles to inspire him to keep moving forward and overcoming the obstacles on his own life-s staircase. The lesson she tries to convey to him, is to keep moving forward just as she did. Life is tough, and if she can do it and continue to do so, her son along with …show more content…
Certain words, as well as phrases are repeated throughout the short poem. One of the ways that, repetition is portrayed throughout this poem, is with the use of an anaphora, in a rhetoric sense. In the beginning, of many lines of the short poem, the word “And” is used. In these lines where ‘And’ is used, it always tells of the obstacles and inconveniences that the mother has stumbled upon, on her journey up the stairs. This repetition of the word in the beginnings of these certain lines exhibits, how her obstacles were many and not only one. The all come one after the other continuously as she continued to …show more content…
The overall poems entitles a mother talking to her son and encouraging him to move on in his life. But, one of the major messages she give him other than to always keep moving forward, she also tells him to never look back. “So boy, don’t you turn back. Don’t you set down on the steps,’ Cause you finds it’s kinder hard. “In these three lines, the mother tells her son to persevere through, the troubles he might face in life. If he turns back, he may never discover what is at the end, of his own life-s staircase. If he turns back, all those troubles he might have faced before, all of the ‘tacks’ and ‘broken boards’, he will ultimately have to experience once more. There will always be the possibility that, he may fall, but he shall not, for he must keep moving forward. She encourages her son, to not give up on his journey, despite the hardships she has encountered on her own and the hardships he may encounter on his own journey. She sees no point or logic of giving up on your life- staircase if you have already made it as far as you have. You must keep climbing despite of what may lie ahead. “Mother to Son,” by Hughes is a short poem about a mother describing her life to her son and the many difficulties she has faced in her life, yet she overcome them and used her hope and her strength to keep climbing. The Story also tells of
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.
“So boy, don't you turn back./Don't you set down on the steps/'Cause you finds it's kinder hard./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” (Line 14-20 Norton, 2028), is the loudest part of the poem. It speaks volumes on how she truly viewed her struggles. . The mother states “ I’se been a-climbin’ on” (Hughes & Rampersad Line 9, 60), which illustrates her dedication to becoming better. She lets it be known that her struggle is yet to be over, but she does not care how hard it will be, she is going to make it. She details the pain she endured: “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair/
...t is arguable that the birds fight is also a metaphor, implying the fight exists not only between birds but also in the father’s mind. Finally, the last part confirms the transformation of the parents, from a life-weary attitude to a “moving on” one by contrasting the gloomy and harmonious letter. In addition, readers should consider this changed attitude as a preference of the poet. Within the poem, we would be able to the repetitions of word with same notion. Take the first part of the poem as example, words like death, illness
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.
Growing up and being raised by his grandmother, Langston Hughes drew from her wisdom and life struggles. His mother had moved from place to place as she tried to raise her son and maybe could not support him with the little money she may have received. His father had left after one year of marriage to his mother. His mother allowed her mother to raise him and help provide for his needs. In the poem, “Mother to Son”, this conversation may have occurred on one of her visits. He may have been at a low point in his life where people were telling him not to pursuit becoming a poet. This poem encourages Mr. Hughes, but also continues to build up confidence in others today. In any conversation, feelings influence thinking and sometimes bring progress in another person life.
In Francis Ellen Watkins Harper's poem "The Slave Mother, A Tale of Ohio," she uses a shifting tone as well as other specific literary techniques to convey the heartbreaking story of a slave woman being separated from her child. This story specifically draws light to the horrific reality that many slaves faced: families were torn apart. Because this poem tells the story of a mother and her son, it also draws light to the love that mothers have for their children and the despair that they would go through if anything were to ever happen to them. Harper's poem addresses both race and gender, and it effectively conveys the heartbreak of the mother to the audience.
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
A parent may want to understand their child and connect to them, but they may not know how to do it. In Li-Young Lee’s poem “A Story”, the literary devices point of view, metaphors, and the structure of the poem are used to portray the complex relationship of the father and child and their inability to be able to connect with one another despite their wishes to do so.
“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is broken winged bird that cannot fly.” -Langston Hughes The struggle in America that African Americans face throughout America’s history is a saddening story where it can apply to any type of people facing the same problems of inequality. The poem I, too and Mother to Son are both similar with the message that it represents but different in the way the message is said. Mother to Son highlights the struggles that Americans who are poverty stricken may face.
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”.
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.
In the story “Father and Son,” Langston Hughes presents Cora as an African American woman that is the mother of her slave owner’s, Colonel Norwood, children. She destabilizes traditional gender roles by acting crazy to help her son, Bert, after he murders his father, Colonel Norwood. Though she doesn’t have nearly as much input as the men in her society, she is a central female character because she makes herself seem crazy to elicit fear and to manipulate the white men into thinking she is unintelligent. Her self empowerment intensifies due to her perseverance in helping her son. She changes from a typical reticent African American woman to a confident and smart woman by coming up with a plan to save Bert from the lynching and inflicting authority
In the lyric poems, “Dreams” and “Harlem,” written by Langston Hughes, the speaker discusses the Harlem Renaissance, that Hughes thought would be successful, but backfired. A common theme for Hughes’s poems are the impediments of the American dream for African Americans. However, African Americans cannot dream or aspire to great things because of the environment of oppression that surrounds them. Although, these two poems are often grouped together, the inconspicuous contrasts in the tones, messages, and figurative languages conceal the relevance between both poems.
In “Mother to Son,” Hughes uses a worn staircase as an extended metaphor to parallel its flaws to the struggles of African Americans. The poem begins with a mother speaking to her son about the pressures of reality and telling him not to succumb. She tells her son, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair,” (Mother to Son “MS” line 2) to portray that her life is far from perfect like the stair of a white person. She describes her life as having “tacks and splinters….with boards torn up” (Hughes lines 3-5). These defects symbolize the problems in her life whether they were caused by her race or gender.
Tacks, splinters, and torn up boards. Doesn’t this seem like a wonderful place to live? For the mother in the poem “Mother to Son” this was her everyday reality. Unlike most people there was no one there to help her when she fell down or lead her in the right way, she was always working for everything she had in her life. The hardships of life are represented by a dark beat up staircase in the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes. Throughout the poem Langston uses powerful symbolism, diction, and form to show how someone coming from nothing can still come out on top.