Preview

Mother to Son

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1570 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Mother to Son
Mother to Son Analysis

Langston Hughes' moving poem "Mother to Son" empowers not only the son, but also the reader with precious words of wisdom. Through the skillful use of literary devices such as informal language, symbolism, metaphors, repetition, as well as clever use of format, Hughes manages to assemble up the image of a mother lovingly, yet firmly, talking to her son about life. This poem is an advice from a mother to son about life that will be challenging and do not think about giving it up.

The theme that this poet conveyed in the poem is determination to live without ever thinking giving up although the obstacles are harsh. Besides, it also emphasize regarding the struggle for life that the one will experience but still have the strength to face it day by day. It also shows about affection and as motivation of a mother to son that takes care of his son and gives advice so that the son will somehow be prepared to face the life.

Langston Hughes’ poem, “Mother to Son” resemble to the well-known expression “let’s have a father to son chat”. However, in this case, the saying is altered to “mother to son”. Poetic devices such as informal language, symbolisms, metaphors and repetition were used in this poem. This poem is written from the mother’s point of view in the advice form so the audience could feels the warmth and approachability of southern dialect. Readers will immediately have an impression of a middle-aged women battered by life’s struggles, with no formal education but plenty of life experiences to share with the son.

Informal language is cleverly used to visually portray a truthful motherly figure that has valuable advice to offer. The persona of the poem is an African-American showed by the dialect used with the missing ‘g’ such as in “climbin’, turning’ ” etceteras. It also use the word “ain’t” which is often used by the African-American.

In addition, symbols like “tacks” is used to illustrate the sharpness and discomfort of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The first stanza opens the poem to the setting and exactly what is going on with this mother and son. The poem holds nothing back from the reader with the line, “While she smokes a few white pebbles” (6) which implies that his mother is smoking cocaine and does this with his knowledge, in the moment. It suggests that his mother doesn’t care too much if he is aware and even if she gets him involved in her addiction. “Late winter, sky darkening after school” (1) tells the reader that the teen is educated and his mother even goes and picks him up. The poem also includes that there are “groceries bought from Shop- Mart” and that she drives a Mercedes (2-4) which is another sign that the family has some values like home making and that the family also has money. Lastly, the first stanza will tell the reader where the mother goes to get high and what the building looks like, and it seems to not match the environment that he may be familiar with, but at the same time he knows where he is because he casually mentions the street name “parked on Diamond” (3) as though we should also be familiar with it. The last line “At the house crumbling” (7) suggests that the neighborhood is not kept up and likely does not match a description in which you might fit a Mercedes into.…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First of all, the diction in this poem is vernacular. The language that this poem is written in is Creole because the author is in fact a Jamaican. This style of writing or language affects the theme greatly. For it does not only explain how stereotyping is in this culture but it transfers on to other cultures as well. This includes the author’s image of it affecting all the educated and uneducated people of Jamaica. Stereotyping is not only present in Jamaica, or only with the low class or the high class. It is present everywhere and the fact that the words in this poem are Creole inflect this message on the reader.…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Mother to Son,” Langston Hughes uses figurative language like metaphors and tone to enhance the theme that you must keep going even through hard times. This poem relates to an important theme in life and in the poem of that you must keep going forward in life and not giving up. This theme is so important in life and in society because if you just give up during hard times you will never go anywhere in life except down. This poem shows us how we should never give up and I believe in that…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When he was young, Hughes’s life consisted of traveling across the country with his mother as she looked for a job opportunity. There were many cases in which Hughes had to live with relatives or close friends because his mom was tied up in finding a job and could not commit to taking care of her son for the time being. Later in his childhood, when Hughes was old enough to be employed, him and his mom worked together to support themselves financially ("Langston Hughes"- EXPLORING Short Stories, Gale, Detroit, 2003.). In other words, Langston Hughes knew exactly what it was like to grow up poverty-stricken. His poem, Mother to Son, perfectly relates to how the issue of poverty influenced his poetry. This piece of literature portrays a meaningful conversation between a mother and her son, in which the mother tells her child that he will have to learn how to overcome obstacles in his life just as she once had and still does to this day. It is highly likely that Langston and his mother, Carrie, had this type of conversation when he was growing up due to their substandard living…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    As I Lay Dying Analysis

    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages

    There is no love so lasting, so strong, so disinterested, so unselfish, so devoted as the first and purest of all loves, a mother’s love. In literature, the concept of a “mother’s love” exists as an important motif, frequently referred to by authors and readers alike as the most sacred of literary loves. Written nearly sixty years apart, Beloved, by Toni Morrison, and As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner, explore the motif of motherhood and a mother’s love. At their cores, Beloved and As I Lay Dying are stories about mothers and their children. Published in 1987, Morrison’s Beloved tells a heart-wrenching story of the everlasting effects of slavery in America by centering around the relationship between Sethe, an escaped slave, and the daughter…

    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Boy

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In a sort of short story style, Marie Howe illustrates a depleting family relationship between a father and his children in the poem, “The Boy,” through its many symbols. With no discernible rhyme scheme, the plot develops, climaxes, and concludes alluding to a short story but in poetic form. The speaker, discovered through clues within the poem, is the younger sister of the boy and she is listening and learning from the examples set by her brothers. There is no mention of a mother so the focus is kept on the relationship between the father and children.…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the poem “Momma” by Chrystal Meeker, the narrator shows the reader what the true meaning of being a mother is. It shows that it is not about what a mom can give to their child or what they buy for them, but what they will give up for their children. In this poem, a mother looks back on her own childhood and realizes what her mother was willing to sacrifice for her children. The poem expresses a mother struggling to raise her children amongst difficulties and the true meaning of motherhood.…

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “A Story” by Li-Young Lee is a melancholy poem expressing a relationship between father and son, focusing primarily on the father’s thoughts. Their relationship gets complicated when the dad can not come up with a story for his pleading son because he is too wrapped up in worrying about a possible future in which he fails to come up with a tale causing the son to leave, essentially ruining their relationship before it even has a chance to develop. Lee accomplishes delivery of this relationship by utilizing deep, meaningful dialogue, and an impactful conclusion statement.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    4. Irony surrounds the "motherlove" in this poem because a mother's love means to caress her children with love and affection instead of teaching them morals especially in public places. However, in the poem the mother slaps her kids when she sees them touching the black…

    • 242 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In both the novel, The House on Mango Street, and the poem “Mother to Son”, the narrators are faced with struggle and hardship. A mother trying to block out the negativity in her sons head, to allow him to persevere, and a young adult trying to understand that even though times can be rough, she can…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I found this poem to be very emotionally moving because it tells of our story as African Americans in this country. The mother begins by telling her son that life for her aint been no crystal stair, it has had tacks in it, splinters, boards torn up, places where there haven’t been any carpet and bare. The beginning stanza of the poem serves as a reminder of the plight of African Americans here in America. Life for us has truly not been a crystal stair, we have certainly experienced a great deal or hardship as a people from the first time our feet touched these shores. This poem speaks of us being stolen from our homeland, and being sold into slavery. It speaks of us being placed in cages on the beach, as we awaited the slave ships to come and whisk us away from to uncertainty. It tells of the horror that we faced in the cage, and the fact that the cage still has the odor from us being packed in there like sardines to this very day.…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In "Mother To Son" the mother wants to pass her knowledge of life to him, that nothing is free and with hard work you will receive the feeling of accomplishments. The mother speaks of her hardships in life, but even with those she has always had hope. Even during the darkest times in her life she never gave up.…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Mother to Son", published in 1922 by Langston Hughes, was one of the most famous poems he had written. Hughes was African-American and was born in 1902. While living in the 1900's Hughes and his family experienced the hardships of racism, discrimination, and slavery. Therefore, this poem is not only words of encouragement from a mother to a son, but also words of encouragement to the entire African American community. This poem of inspiration let the community know that the difficulties that they all had to endure at the time were felt by all and that they were not alone in the struggle. Hughes wrote this from the standpoint of a mother encouraging her son to keep going no matter what hardships he may experience. She explained that life is hard and he is not the only one who has had to endure the experience of life's hard lessons.…

    • 693 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the poem Mother to Son, Hughes tells the tale of a mother speaking to her son about life and the hardships that one must face to make it in the world. Hughes uses extended metaphor to establish this view. In the second line he writes “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”, which initiates the metaphor. He then proceeds to describe the stair of her life. With the lines, “It’s had tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor…” he support the mothers claim that like has not been a crystal stair case by using the metaphor to make a direct comparison between imperfections in the staircase and the pitfalls in life. He continues on with the line “bare” symbolizing rock bottom, nothingness, the absence of value. Then poem then begins to rise in action to signify the continued climb and the need to continue on, which is seen in the following lines; “I’se been a-climbin’ on,/ and reachin’ landin’s,/ and turnin’ corners,/ and sometimes goin’ in the dark…” the narrator states to the son once more that they still continue to climb and that life was easy for them. The language and the line structure chosen by Hughes help facilitate the message. He use very simple language but is able to invoke strong emotions from the reader. The language would potentially lead the reader to believe that this is truly a simple woman who had to struggle everyday of her life to make it. If Hughes had…

    • 1432 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Langston Hughes Critique

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Wasley describes his opinions about how he believes that the Mother figure in the poem is symbolic for the troublesome history of African-Americans. According to Wasley, Langston Hughes has used the “mother talking to son” setting in a few of his other poems as well. Wasley also did a fantastic job at explaining how Hughes references “Life ain’t a crystal stair” to the biblical story of “Jacob’s Ladder”. These details give the readers of the poem more background information and bring new depth to the poem. In his critique, Wasley also evaluates the form of “Mother to Son” and states that this poem has a prominently defined Blues theme. One reason, which Wasley did not mention, that “Mother to Son” is still a popular poem is that the themes of struggle and hardships are universal subjects that almost every human has to go through in some point of their lives. “Mother to Son” can also be seen as an encouraging and inspiring story for people who are going through such hardships.…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics