Summary Of Mother To Son By Langston Hughes

In the poem, “Mother to Son” harlem renaissance Langston Hughes writes of a mother’s heartbreaking journey through a never ending cycle of life through the use of figurative language and complex structure. The reader is able to fully receive the message the author has provided.

Reporter: Hi Mr Hughes, so I’ve learnt that recently one of your poems , “Mother To Son is published”. Congratulations, but besides from the blissful joy of happiness, can you share with us your feelings right now? Are we happy? Proud?

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

Mother to Son is a poem that was written by Langston Hughes, and was published in 1922. Throughout this poem, Langston Hughes portrays a mother speaking to her son and the readers to bestow her knowledge, encouragement and wisdom from the life that she lived.

The theme of the poem and short story is that parents only want the best for their children and they try their hardest to meet their children’s needs. In both readings, the parents always tried their hardest to care for their children no matter what situation they're in. In the poem, “Mother to Son”, the mother states that life for her hasn't been easy for her but she didn't give up and neither should her son. I see this in both the poem and short story. Both mothers don't think that their child should give up on their dreams so they would be successful in life and not have to go through what they went through. Langston Hughes describes how the mother's life has been using figurative language. He described that the mother’s life isn't

In the poem “Mother to Son”, Langston Hughes uses the deep connection between a mother and her son and descriptive rhetoric to bring hope and inspire the African American people to fight for their rights.The author most likely wrote the poem for the African American audience because it is written in an African American slang during the Harlem Renaissance. However, any minority group can relate to this creation because it is about people who are going through a difficult time. Hughes describes the arduous reality of life; one in which people have to overcome challenges and face their worst fears in order to reach the top of the ladder. He is telling the African American people that they cannot give up during the hard times. Moreover, the author utilized the deep connection between a mother and her son to make the poem more dramatic. Since mothers are known to have a soft and caring voice towards their children. They traditionally will do anything for their kids. This drama appeals to the readers and gives them hope for the future. The future consists of fulfilling their American dream. The American cream stands for the idea that every person should have an equal opportunity to achieve prosperity and success through hard work and determination. Next, Langston Hughes hoped to encourage the African American people to fight for their rights. To drive his point home, the author described his journey through time in painstaking detail, which helps the readers connect to the

Adversity is a central component of every individual's life. It is the difficult situations that shape our identity and help us recognize who we are. Difficult situations have the ability to transform our perceptions and values of the world while morphing us into stronger and more confident individuals. However, it is when refuse to cope with our struggles ourselves and push the responsibility of solving our problems over to others that problems arise. When faced with adversity it is common for individuals to turn to their parents not hoping for, but expecting assistance. They do not face their own struggles and expect their parents to assist them in doing so. In the short story "Mother to Son" the author, Langston Hughes demonstrates the importance of individuals overcoming obstacles with little intervention from their parents in order for it to benefit them.

In the poem, Mother to Son, by Langston Hughes, the author highlights counsels a mother to her son, to be persistent, not to let discouraged by obstacles that arise in life, posing herself example, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair…But all the time I’se been a-climin’ on.”, the image of a mother lovingly, wisely talking to her son about life.The language used by the mother shows that she was not an educated person and words such as “Tacks”, “splinters”, “boards torn up” suggests that life was not so easy for this woman. Obstacles of life are often very sharp, the challenges are difficult and painful, like a ladder with all kinds of defects, which is very difficult to be ascent. The way this mother describes her journey through this life, make the reader to understand that she is a black woman who had faced a lot of obstacles in her quest to move forward in life from the whites, “And sometimes goin’ in the dark, Where there ain’t been no light. So, boy, don’t you turn back.”

Langston Hughes’ poem “Mother To Son” is a twenty line poem that seems to be from the perspective of a prudent mother that is giving her son, and possibly the readers, some helpful and supportive advice, telling them that, no matter how many adversities they may face, they can not give up. I believe that this is the main theme of the poem, perseverance. “So, boy, don’t you turn back./ Don’t you set down on the steps./ ‘Cause you find it’s kinder hard./ Don’t you fall now-/ For I’se still goin’ honey,” (15-17). In these lines, the mother really drives the idea of diligence and perseverance to her son. Also, in these lines, it can also be seen just how much this mother cares for and loves her child. She advises him to emulate her in the sense that she hasn’t given up and he shouldn’t either, so that they may climb the battered staircase of life together. This causes the mood to be overall relatively jovial and hopeful.

Life is never a straight path to where a person wants to go, it is more like a set of stairs where every step is a new obstacle that they have to overcome. In the poem, “Mother to Son,” it talks about the difficulties in life but to never give up. Langston Hughes, the author of the poem, uses the analogy of life to stairs, the fact that life constantly has new battles, and the idea of never giving up to emphasize this theme. In the poem, the mother compares life to a set of rickety stairs.

The speaker’s message to readers in “Mother to Son” is that life can be difficult, but you have to keep trying despite these difficulties. I believe this message is directed towards people who are experiencing hardships and poverty, because the speaker is directing her conversation to her “son,” who does not have a life that is like “crystal stairs” (line 2). The crystal stairs in the poem represents a wealthy and easy life, as wealthy people have not probably had the same difficulties in life. Her message of not giving up is evident throughout the poem as she demands her son to not give up. She says, “So boy, don't you turn back, don't you set down on the steps, cause you finds it’s kinder hard” (lines 14-16). As readers, we know the message for us is that you can’t give up, even though you will face challenges—just like you have to keep going on a “staircase” even though the staircase has many obstacles on it. She clearly believes that we need to be fighters in our lives, as life will often be difficult. More importantly, I believe this message was also meant towards African Americans in the early 1900’s (when Langston Hughes was writing poetry), to remind them to never give up on fighting for equal rights, even though it is

The poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes is the story of a mother speaking of life’s hardships to her son. The poem starts off with the protagonist’s haunting words about the difficulty of life; however, as the story goes on, her words of despair become words of wisdom to her son on never giving up. Hughes organizes this poem by transitioning the tone from hopelessness to encouragement to convey the raw message that although life can be hard, anyone can reach their goals with effort.

During the Harlem Renaissance period, artists used their personal voices to relate the Negro experience in hopes of educating and empowering people. Some wrote to appeal to the reader’s intellect while others relied on emotion. Langston Hughes and Claude McKay were examples of two artists with a common cause and different voices. Both men both used their work to encourage and empower, but their approaches were extremely different and likely spoke to different people.