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Mother to Son Poem Analysis Essay Jeremy Hartnett Post University English Literature

POEM ANALYSIS

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In the wise words of Uncle Remus, “You can't run away from trouble. There ain't no place that far.” Mother to Son, by Langston Hughes is written from a mother's point of view talking to her son, giving him advice for growing up. Although Hughes writes about a staircase, the message in Mother to Son is no matter the adversity you face, never give up. The staircase, is an extended metaphor, only used to represent life and the obstacles one must overcome throughout their life. Hughes uses an extended metaphor as well as, imagery, and colloquial language to get his message of perseverance across to the reader. Hughes was a major contributor to the Harlem Renaissance, and was an African American growing up in America in the 1920's. His parents divorced while he was a child, and Langston had to live with his grandmother until he was 13, and then he moved back in with his mother. Hughes' message is portrayed through a mother's advice to her son. The mother’s past was troubled and not easy, she had to face much adversity while coming out of poverty and is telling her son that life will always give you a new obstacle you must overcome but you need to keep going and continue to overcome. Explaining that life is never going to be easy for you. The advice being that you are going to face adversity and difficulties in your life, but you have to stand up and not quit, face the adversity head on and overcome it to succeed in your life. Hughes uses an extended metaphor of comparing life to a stair case, he uses hyperboles to explain in detail how rough and painful the staircase (life) is and that it isn't a nice fancy clear staircase with no problems. "Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair" (Hughes, L.). Also, the language that Hughes uses is very colloquial showing that the speaker, the mother, may not be well educated. "The vernacular language gives the impression that the woman is less educated" (lierarydevices.net). Through the mother's language and the conditions of the stairs the reader can infer that she was grew up in poverty, and she persevered through and created a successful

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life. A line that is a great example of both her colloquial language and her perseverance is "I’se been a-climbin’ on" (Hughes, L.). The language is how she may talk in life but not how one would expect a poem to be written and she talks about how she keeps going when an obstacle arises. Hughes' message is extremely pertinent to every person's life. Everyone will face adversity in their life and they will think to themselves how much easier it would be to quit and give up, but they need to dig deep and overcome the adversity to be successful in their life. This poem is an effective way to convey this message because everyone knows that their mom knows best even if they don’t want to admit it so this will help people remember that they need to keep on persisting and overcome the adversity throughout their life. Hughes effectively uses imagery to paint a vivid picture of a set of stairs that are dark, gloomy, dangerous, and with many dangerous obstacles. This image helps the reader realize how many challenges people face every day and throughout their lives. This imagery makes the extended metaphor of comparing a set of stair to life much stronger. Malcom X once said "There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time." Through the use of extended metaphor, imagery, and colloquialisms, in Mother to Son, Hughes promotes his message that no matter the adversity you face, never give up. The speaker is a mother talking to her son about adversity and comparing life to a staircase that can be nice or dangerous and treacherous.

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References (2017, August 31). "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes – Analysis and Poem. Retrieved October 03, 2017, from https://brightdreamsjournal.com/2017/02/22/mother-to-son-bylangston-hughes-analysis-and-poem/ Hughes, L. (n.d.). Mother to Son by Langston Hughes. Retrieved October 03, 2017, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47559/mother-to-son Mother to Son. (2015, June 18). Retrieved October 03, 2017, from https://literarydevices.net/mother-to-son/...