More handpicked essays just for you.
Mother to Son Analysis and Summary by Langston Hughes
Critical analysis of the works of langston hughes
Mother to Son Analysis and Summary by Langston Hughes
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The conflicting interests of the mother and the father result in a situation where one must make a sacrifice in order to preserve the connection in the family. The flat depressed tone of the poem reflects the mother’s unhappiness and frustration about having to constantly
She knew that a family's love for one another is the most resilient strength. Therefore, her husband was able to live through his brother's death and in return, she was his shepherd "I helped your father get safely through this world" (Baldwin 42). Consequently, she can see the similarities between her late husband and her youngest child, how they both carry the weight of their blues onto their shoulders unlike our narrator, who had instead internalized it. She must open the eyes of her eldest son to this tragic narrative of the world, he needs to look out for his fellow black brother, “I guess I didn’t want to believe this. I guess she [the mother] saw this in my face” (Baldwin 42) he quotes.
Langston Hughes is a poet, playwright and fiction writer. He wrote a short story "salvation " in 1940. The story was about a twelve year old kid and his religious experience. In this story the author was attempting to convey to the audience about how his experience in religion made him feel disappointed. Also; he felt guilty for lying to the people at the church.
There are so many writers and people who do not write also that look up to him. He accepted the challenge of expressing the heart and soul of African Americans. Keenly aware of racism, Hughes visioned a nation where domestic problems could be realized. Hughes in his poetry, expressed his own reactions to incidents in his life and in the world at large. Langston Hughes left such a lasting impression on poetry , black culture, and the people in his life, that he changed the way they lived with the spirit and soul he put into his
In “Mother to Son,” by Langston Hughes, the poet uses figurative language and diction to convey a tone of persistence. When the poet likens his life to being a “no crystal stair,” Hughes establishes that his earlier life was never easy or rich through the comparison to a beautiful, and valuable object. The poet initiates an idea that he kept at it and didn't give up, even though his life wasn't pretty or full of wealth. Later on, the poet utilizes the imagery of “boards torn up,” and “no carpet on the floor,” illustrating a decrepit home life and revealing another difficulty he had to endure in his youth, but he pushed past it and persevered. When the poet likens his life to something with “tacks in it,” he uses the image of something sharp,
Over the past quarter we’ve read several short stories and poems. While most poems have different themes, each developed in their own way, two stories stuck out to me with similar themes: “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes and “To James” by Frank Horne. In the texts “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes and “To James” by Frank Horne, both authors develop the theme of never giving up through conflict, repetition, and word choice. In the first text, Mother to Son, the message is that you should never give up no matter how hard life gets. In the second text, James, the message is that you should keep pushing, never give up and you’ll be victorious.
Langston Hughes was a poet, play writer, fiction writer, and novelist who spent most of his early years with his grandmother. His grandmother spent her time with him telling him stories of the past. Resultantly, he was instinctually drawn to African American culture. He later wrote stories, biographies and poems about black lives in America. Langston is very well known for his views on black lies from the twenties all through the sixties and was an important figure in shaping contributions of the Harlem Renaissance.
Let us say someone encountered a bump in life or something bad happened people will always move past it eventually because people cannot let something weigh them down for the rest of their lives. The big message or idea of these two poems is to keep moving on because people will always have to deal with problems. In “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes and Still I Rise by Maya Angelou they both convey the message that people should never give up and keep on rising no matter what happens or what people say. Throughout the poem “Mother to Son,” Langston Hughes coveys that people should always keep pushing towards their goals and not give up.
In "Mother to Son," Langston Hughes uses an extended metaphor and throws in other metaphors as well. He first starts to compare life to a staircase. However, this is not a luxury staircase that is made of glass. It is a cheap, worn down, and broken staircase. He uses this metaphor through the entire poem to describe the mother's life as extremely hard and agonizing.
Each poet has different writing styles that makes their poems unique, which can be seen in analyzing different poems. In the poems, “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, and “Speech to the Young” by Gwendolyn Brooks, both poets give advice to the reader in their writing. Both poems have very distinctive forms that helps to convey the meaning of the poem more, yet both poems have very similar sound techniques. “Mother to Son” is all one metaphor and uses more imagery, whilst “Speech to the Young” does not contain any imagery. Both poems have a similarity basis to their themes of not giving up, “Mother to Son” goes into more depth on this theme.
“Mother to Son” Analysis Everyone wants to be something in life. Langston Hughes a famous poet in the Harlem Renaissance had severe life from all the segregation and slavery during 1980s. During this time it limited things the African Americans could do, Hughes didn’t let that stop him he became a poet and wrote the famous “Mother to Son” poem. Which Hughes explains even though there are hard times in life you shouldn’t give up it should push you to be better and get further in life.
Although Mother to Son by Langston Hughes and We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks take two opposing views on life, they effectively explain the importance of living life lawfully, ethically, and dedicatedly. The first poem illustrates what happens when caution is used, while the other warns against what happens when it is not used. Lawful living is an integral part of these poems' themes. Petty crimes lead to loss of morality, as in We Real Cool. Without a sense of morality, there is no low to the depths that one can reach.
Langston Hughes poems “Harlem” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” are two poems that have a deeper meaning than a reader may notice. Hughes 's poem “Harlem” incorporates the use of similes to make a reader focus on the point Hughes is trying to make. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Hughes shows how close he was to the rivers on a personal level. With those two main focuses highlighted throughout each poem, it creates an intriguing idea for a reader to comprehend. In these particular poems, Hughes’s use of an allusion, imagery, and symbolism in each poem paints a clear picture of what Hughes wants a reader to realize.
In the poem “Mother to Son”, the author Langston Hughes uses literary devices such as metaphors and tone to imply that anyone should persevere through hardships. To begin, Hughes uses metaphors widely throughout the poem. A mother, refers to life being rough, rather than smooth like a crystal stair, signifying that she grew up in a poorer home. “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” (Hughes 2). Crystal stair refers to how easy it was to climb the “ stairs of life”, without any hardships in the way, and evidently, this did not occur for the speaker.
Langston Hughes was an American poem born in the early nineteen hundreds, who became known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He published many poems that brought light to the life of people of color in the twentieth century. There are three poems that the speakers are used to portray three major themes of each poem. Racism, the American Dream, and Hopes are all the major themes that Hughes uses to highlight the average life of a person of color. Theme for English B,” “Harlem,” and “Let America Be America Again” were three of Hughes’s poems that was selected to underline the themes.
