MOTHER TO SONBY LANGSTON HUGHES

PRESENTATION DONE BY IAN BENZ

BIO

Born on February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri

He attended Columbia University but left after one year to travel

Being an African American growing up in the early 1900s, him and his

family experienced racism, discrimination and slavery harshly, he has

overcome this terror and has accomplished great things. He wrote many

poems and became one of the most profound writers in his time

Hughes wrote “Mother to Son” not only as the words of encouragement

of a mother to a son, but also to let people know the difficulties that his

kind have gone through and that they were not alone in the struggles

MOTHER TO SON

Well, son, I'll tell you:Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.It's had tacks in it, And splinters,And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor --Bare.But all the timeI'se been a-climbin' on,And reachin' landin's,And turnin' corners,And sometimes goin' in the dark Where there ain't been no light.So boy, don't you turn back.Don't you set down on the steps Cause you finds it's kinder hard.Don't you fall now --For I'se still goin', honey,I'se still climbin',And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

THEME/ MEANING

In this poem, James Mercer Langston Hughes is trying to

portray that along with the fact that the mother in this poem

is trying to tell her son to stay optimistic and that life has its

difficulties and as long as you don’t give up, this poem also

is an inspiration to a community rather than to a son. The

community as a whole has been suffering through all of the

difficulties and what the poem is saying is that everyone has

felt the struggles and that they can all overcome it together,

they are not alone. Life is difficult but many are going

through the same thing, you just have to believe.

TONE

“Mother to Son” brings a

happy/optimistic tone to the readers

eyes. Even though the main topic of

the poem is how the mother has

endured tough times and says how her

son will go through tough times, she

talks about how you can overcome

these obstacles. She tells her son to

never give up, which gives hope to the

readers.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE/RHYME SCHEME

There is actually no rhyme scheme in this piece, this is more of a story

than a poem with a meaning and a theme, rather than the story

changing, this is all on one topic. There is some figurative language in

this story, he said “life for me aint been no crystal stair” which portrays

that the mothers life has been rough, she also uses some examples of

figurative language saying that her life has had some tacks in it,

splinters and brought up boards. That explains that her life has been

painful and very hard. She also states that she was in the complete dark

where there is no hope. There is one piece of repetition which was “Life

for me aint been no crystal stair”.

CITATION

WriteWork contributors. "Mother to Son by

Langston Hughes" WriteWork.com. WriteWork.com,

16 March, 2004. Web. 20 Dec. 2012.