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"Mother to son" is an allegorical poem that is told as a lesson from parent to child. It uses the "crystal stair" as a metaphor for her struggles, colloquial language to show the racial and cultural obstacles she may have faced. The mother uses words such as "ain't" instead of "hasn't" and "climbin'" rather than "climbing"
"Mother to son" is an allegorical poem that is told as a lesson from parent to child. It uses the "crystal stair" as a metaphor for her struggles, colloquial language to show the racial and cultural obstacles she may have faced. The mother uses words such as "ain't" instead of "hasn't" and "climbin'" rather than "climbing"
"Mother to son" is an allegorical poem that is told as a lesson from parent to child. It uses the "crystal stair" as a metaphor for her struggles, colloquial language to show the racial and cultural obstacles she may have faced. The mother uses words such as "ain't" instead of "hasn't" and "climbin'" rather than "climbing"
The poem Mother to Son, written by Langston Hughes, is an allegorical poem that is told as a lesson from parent to child to describe the hardships the mother faced growing up and while raising the child. It uses the crystal stair as a metaphor for her struggles, colloquial language to show the racial and cultural obstacles she may have faced, and syntax and structure to emphasize her determination to obtain happiness,. In the first line of the poem, the narrator, speaking to her son, tells him that her life hasnt been a crystal stair to describe the difficulties she faced as a black women. It can be assumed that the mother in the poem is African American because of her use of colloquial language and considering the fact that the poem is written by Langston Hughes, whose writing was most alive during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. A crystal staircase provides the imagery of a staircase that is clean, flawless, and in pristine condition. It also entails a affluence which is contrary to the staircase present in the mothers actual life. Her stair is described as having tacks in it, splinters, boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor, an indication of her poor financial situation and status. The staircase represents the social hierarchy within society that those who are born privileged can easily climb up but those who are not strain to make advances in. Thus, she uses imagery that elicits a sense of pain, the splinters and the torn up boards, to recreate the feelings of dismay and hopeless over her situation. The problems that the mother faced are revealed to be mostly cultural and racial based through the use of colloquial language. In the poem, the mother uses words such as aint instead of hasnt and climbin rather than climbing. This may suggest that the mother
is uneducated, a possibility considering the lack of education available to African Americans in
the 1930s because of racism. It also suggests that despite the mothers social handicaps, she takes pride in her cultural identity. The mother is unafraid to speak the way she wants to in front of her child. This is evident in the way the mother uses stair instead of staircases in her talk to her son. The denotation of the word stair is a series of steps. While staircase would be more commonly seen in proper English conversation, and stair may sound awkward to some ears, using stair in this case is not incorrect. It is simply a different choice of words. The syntax and structure used in the poem is used by Hughes to show the mothers persistence to achieve happiness, although she is looked down upon for being the matriarch of the family. It may also be assumed that the mother in this poem is single based on the context of the poem and its arrangement. In the poem, the word and is used repeatedly in the beginning of lines to emphasize the amount of difficulties she face. For example, the mother states that she has been a-climbin on/ And reachin landins/ And turnin corners/ And sometimes goin in the dark to show her undying persistence. If she were not a single mother, its unlikely that the main focus of lesson would be in her struggles nor would the title be what it is. Another element used is caesura, through the use of two dashes, to bring attention to the message in the following line. The poet does this to bring shift the tone of the poem from troubled to optimistic. In lines seventeen, mother warns her son dont you fall now-- and continues with For Ise still goin, honey in the next line to encourage her son not to fall to racial prejudices. Even with an upbringing and skin color that was not ideal for her time period, she shows that since she was able to keep a positive outlook on life; he should be able to do so as well. Langston Hughess Mother to Son, uses the metaphor of the crystal stair, colloquial language, and syntax and structure in a matriarchs lesson to her son that begins with class and racial struggles and ends with a message of resilience and individualism.