Mother to Son

"Mother vs. Son" is a poem written from the mother's and son's point of view. She told her son for the first time that life was not a stairway of crystal, but a stud and a piece, all the planks were removed and there were no carpets even in some places. The mother said she said she climbed the stairs and turned and sometimes it got dark or even turned back. She kept going up the stairs and said she still had climbed the stairs by herself. "Mother to Son" is a poem about advice from mother to son. This poem tells us how difficult life is, but we can not look back. We must overcome that difficulty. We must keep on living our lives. Sometimes there are good days, sometimes there are bad days. She is still climbing, finishing the poem saying that life is not easy

The theme of Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son" was to urge his son to keep on living with the mother overcoming difficulties. The expanded metaphor of the crystal staircase reinforces the theme. The mother did not climb the stairs of the crystal but went up the stairs as "stacked", "fragments", "rips", "there was no carpet on the floor." All of these images highlight the upward movement of the mother. Despite the difficulties, and her obstacles on the road she needs to move forward. The language the mother uses is her native language - a daily speech. She is talking about ways an uneducated woman speaks - a woman who must always work hard. For example, she uses words like "not" or "no crystal steps". Other examples of her native language speech are "I" and "Climbing". Her words reinforces her ideas from a discreet background, but continues to work hard to achieve better goals.