Enduring Life In Mother To Son By Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes’ poem “Mother to Son,” written in 1922, tells the story of a young mother giving important life lessons to her son. It conveys the struggles and hardships that the mother was forced to endure throughout her life, while portraying her as a woman who never gave up hope and got through the hard times. The strength and resilience she shows is a testament to the power of a mother’s love and willingness to do anything for their family. Hughes is able to portray this love and emotion with the use of various literary elements, such as rhymes and metaphors.

“Mother to Son,” written by Langston Hughes, is a short poem about a mother who is teaching her son about perseverance and determination by using the image of a staircase. She explains that even though life has given her many hardships, she continues forward and she urges her son to do the same. In “Mother to Son,” Langston Hughes uses an extended metaphor, imagery, dialect, and structure to paint a picture of a weary mother who wants her son to persevere through the hardships of life.

Langston Hughes was writing poetry during the period of the Harlem Renaissance. This literary era between the 1920s to mid-1930s was a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that created a breakthrough for black identity. This greatly affected Hughes work where he would write about life as an African American. In this poem, “Mother To Son”, he writes about a mother and son relationship. The mother is giving crucial advice about life influenced by her own experiences as a black woman. In this poem, the first line opens with,” Well, son, I’ll tell you,” which introduce the speaker as the mother who is teaching her son. The overall concept the mother portrays is advice to overcome obstacles

The poems “Courage” by Anne Sexton and “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, are very similar in the messages they deliver. They both deliver the message that life is a constant struggle, and will be filled with challenges that everyone has to face, but nobody should give up (even when it seems like the only thing to do). In the poem “Courage”, the quote “You did not fondle the weakness inside you, though it was there.” (513) shows that there will always be weakness inside you, but you can overcome that weakness with the courage to do so, and keep going. In the poem “Mother to Son”, the quote “Don’t you set down on the steps ‘Cause you finds it kinder hard.

For this reason, the mother in Langston Hughes's poem teaches her son to keep moving forward since "[she is] still climbing" her crumbled stair (19-20). Knowing that life is not easy and being afraid that her child will slowly give up to his own difficulties, his mother insists on him keeping trying because though there will be many obstacles standing in his way, life never hands out things that is too much to handle. Moreover, the mother, after facing numerous struggles, has learned that through darkness comes light, through failure comes experience, and through experience comes wisdom and triumph. Therefore, she wants to imply that knowledge on her son to help him rise and shine in his own

These are the words every child should heard from their mothers, why? Because this is how we learn how to appreciate life. This words sound like a single mother, or just a mother that has been suffering so much. In the first two lines from the poem the mother says “Well son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” refereeing to how hard life has been for her, telling her son that is not easy like he maybe thinks. The last thing a mother wants to do is worrying her son with her problems, they always keep them to themselves, but when they see their kids struggling they use their life as an example. She uses words like “tacks, splinters, boards torn up, no carpet, bare, dark with no light” to give the image of how difficult everything has been for her. On the fourteen line from the poem she tells her son “So boy, don’t you turn you back.” Maybe he has a problem and is giving up, his mother tells him that she has been through worst, and if she made it, for sure he can do it too. And every day she keeps struggling but fighting like a true soldier. Every day my mother tells me a little struggle she has overcome and she tells me, if I did it why you

This is significant because the speaker kept persisting and got through the "tacks" or hurdles, which helped build a better future for her. This is also evident when the narrator states “I’s been a-climbin’ on,/ And reachin’ landins’,” (Hughes, lines 9-10). Through this, readers can see that the mother followed her dreams, worked hard and reached milestones. Unlike the mother, Jose from Born Worker learned a different lesson: cheaters will only get so far in life, while those who stay true will go far.

The speaker in Langston Hughes’ poem, “Mother to Son”, is a mother, who is trying to encourage her son to persist through his life. The mother uses a “crystal stair” as a metaphorical contrast with her life, stating in her second line: “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” (2). The mother tells her son that unlike the “crystal stair”, hers were filled with “tacks”, “splinters”, and torn up “boards” that acted as obstacles at her “steps” (3-5). The “stairs” holds two meanings, which are social standing and goal. The goal is the “stairs” itself, for the path that a person chooses to reach, while the social standing determines the obstacles that may be set up on those “stairs”.

Langston Hughes was a substantial American poet, playwright, and novelist who was a major contributor to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s because of his African American themes. He sought to voice the stories of his people in methods that revealed their actual culture, including their suffering, their love of music, and language. In his poem, “Mother to Son”, a mother tells her son about the sufferings she has faced, but continued to live life constantly knocking down each obstacle relentlessly. She advises him to follow the tradition and never stop working hard. By using many literary devices, Langston Hughes portrays the hardships faced by Africans in the twenties through sixties vividly.

In mother to son it talks about how the mother is giving the son a lesson about never turn back, basically it is saying never look down always look up, never turn back always look ahead, when you fall get back up. Langston Hughes mom is telling her son to do all of these things in order to stay strong in life. I saw a picture of a baby boy and his mother, the mother was giving the son something, It look like a ball of yarn or something but what it look like doesn’t matter what matter is how strong the ball is and it looked very strong. In his life as his mom is telling him what life is about you can learn from this poem it really helps you to know how life is. You should never be scared of life because you have nothing to fear.

The speaker in the poem,”Mother to Son” by Langton Hughes, has lived a rough life and thinks that perseverance is the most important thing in life. To begin, the speaker of the poem, a mother, is talking to her son about life in general and stairs that represent life. These stairs that she mentions that “life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”(Hughes 2). The speaker says that those stairs are broken and confusing to go through with its many paths and dark places. Just like the journey of life, there are times where the stairs are hard to go on, and sometimes painful to walk across, and sometimes it’s dull for sometimes.

“Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes was composed during a time where African American literature, culture, and art flourished, most known as The Harlem Renaissance. In Mother to Son, Hughes uses figurative language such as metaphors, symbolism, and imagery, and well as repetition to convey the trials and tribulations of an arduous life survived by a strong woman, as she converses with her son encouraging him to persevere, even when in anguish.

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:

In the poem ?Mother to Son? by Langston Hughes, the author describes a mother?s warning to her son about life?s struggles. This poem was written in 1926 by Hughes, during a time period known as the Harlem Renaissance. This was a time of expression for African Americans as the culture was two generations removed from the Civil War. The life of African Americans was completely different than their pre and post war relatives. Many had gotten jobs, owned their own homes and even fought in the Great War. Despite the advancements made during this time, many if not most African Americans still struggled with poverty and discrimination. This is evident in the poem

In the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, the mother tells her son that her “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” What she means is that her life has never been perfect and that she has been to different places that are not the best like with no carpet or with splinters. In the painting, the mother has nothing and she is sitting on the bare floor. All that she has in the painting is the big ball of yarn and her son. Also, it kind of like she wants the little boy to catch the ball or like she is giving it to him.