Mother to Son by Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was an African poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. He is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. Many of his work were written from the perspective of an African American. Also because of his african background, he had experienced racialism, prejudice, persecution and social inequalities throughout his life times. “Mother to son” was first published during the time of the Harlem Renaissance.The theme of the poem is the determination to live through life without ever giving up even though there will be difficulties and challenges ahead. The mother compares her life to a very ripped staircase which has “tacks” and “splinters” representing the life’s hardships and challenges. Even so, she is still determined to “climbin’ on” the stairs for all the pain caused by those “tacks” and “splinters” on every step along the way. She also encourages her son to never “set down on the steps” from the uphill battle of life. This gives the image of a compassionate mother who hopes to see her son facing the obstacles in life rather than turning away from them.

In the poem “Mother to son”, Langston Hughes is able to express these feelings about life’s problems and hardships by conveying it into form of a mother telling her son about life. The mother in the poem compares her life to a stair and states that it “ain’t been no crystal stair.” In other words, she is telling her son that life has not been easy and pleasant. Life is not the perfect vision that many think of it to be. The mother continues to say that “it has had tacks in it, splinters, and boards torn up and places with no carpet floor.” These splinters and tacks are metaphors for the obstacles one experience throughout life. These splinters and tacks represent the harsh reality of life, as opposed to the perfect vision life. Through the use of the mother, Hughes uses a stair as a metaphor for life in order to communicate this message.

In the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, the mother is talking to her son about the hardships she has gone through in her life. She talks about how she never gave up and tells her son that he should always keep trying no matter how hard life may get. The author conveys the hardship and overcoming of obstacle in the mother and son’s life through the use of word choice, symbolism, and an extended metaphor.