In the poem “Mother to Son” Langston Hughed teaches us a lesson to persevere through hardship. The Mother in the poem used metaphors, dialect, and anaphora to teach us a lesson. All the methods are used throughout the entire poem.
Body paragraph #1
In various lines of the poem Langston Hughes uses metaphors to compare parts of the Mothers life to a staircase. On line 2 the Mother says, “My life ain't been no crystal stair,” when Langston uses that to compare the Mothers life he means her life hasn't been easy, and later in the poem on lines 3-6 he says, ”It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor-'' he uses those to tell the reader how the Mothers life was difficult. He continues to build on the theme with metaphors on lines 18-19 when she says, “For I’se still goin’,honey, I’se still climbin’ “ this gets the message to persevere
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On lines 9-12 she says “I’se been climbin’ on, And reachin’ landin’s,And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’ in the dark,” he uses this dialect to show how the Mother is uneducated which can make things more difficult in life. This also shows how she wants her son to persevere like she did even though she was uneducated. Langston Hughes did that intentionally to make her perseverance seem greater because she did it while uneducated.
Body paragraph #3 (optional) Another major technique used is anaphora. In lines 4-6 he repeats the word ‘’and’’ multiple times to show how they were all things that the Mother struggled with repeatedly. “And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor,” without the repetition the words wouldn’t be as meaningful. And she continues to build and her son will realize how many difficulties she had and she still continued to