Mother to Son

The poem's main symbol is the rough staircase the mother climbs every day. It has, according to her: tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor She...

Tone is defined as the attitude of the author about a subject, as seen in the perspective and language used to explore that subject in the writing. In the poem "Mother to Son", Langston Hughes...

“Mother to Son” is an extended metaphor for life, narrated from the perspective of a wise maternal figure who has faced many obstacles. Despite this, the speaker has kept “climbin’ on” to reach her...

The entirety of Langston Hughes' poem "Mother to Son" is an extended metaphor. The poem is written from the perspective of a black mother who is encouraging her child never to give up on life, even...

In my mind, the most powerful element of Hughes' poem is the theme of struggle that seems to be passed down from one generation to another. A trademark of Hughes' poetry is that he conveyed an...

The mood of "Mother to Son" is one of optimism in the face of hardship and sadness. The poem starts off, it seems, on a note of resignation: Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no...

The theme of "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes is the mother's urging of the son to keep going in life, despite difficulties. The theme is reinforced by the extended metaphor of the crystal...

In "Mother to Son", the mother compares her life to a splintered and dilapidated stairway: It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up A stairway is a means of getting somewhere or,...

Langston Hughes's 1922 poem "Mother to Son" is presented as a monologue in the vernacular. The mother is plainspoken and her tone is both matter-of-fact and intimate because it is imperative that...

In “Mother to Son,” Langston Hughes assumes the persona of a mother who is having a heart-to-heart conversation with her son. His purpose is to show that the strongest people in life persevere...

Hughes uses dramatic monologue for this poem, in which the mother directly addresses her son and reveals much about her character in the process. This style adds a powerful emotional immediacy to...

Langston Hughes uses a number of sound devices and figures of speech in the poem “Mother to Son.” The poem is metaphor for life, which Hughes describes as a “crystal stair.” A mother speaks to her...

The terms "rising action" and "resolution" and "conflict" are normally used to analyze the plots of narrative works. Although Langston Hughes' "Mother to Son" is a relatively short poem, it does...

The speaker employs a vernacular that would be common for a black mother in this historical context to use in speaking with her son. This accounts for the colorful language such as "I'se" and...

The speaker in this poem is the eponymous mother. The mother addresses the poem to her son and offers him advice as to how to live his life, based on her own life experiences. She tells her son...

In "Mother to Son," Langston Hughes gives a message of encouragement to black Americans struggling against poverty and racial injustice. The language of the poem and the free verse format...

Anaphora, or the repetition of a word at the beginning of clauses, is a key literary device that helps develop the message of “Mother to Son” of the value of persistence in the face of adversity....

The speaker, the poet's mother, compares her life to a climb up a hard set of stairs. It has been a treacherous climb, with tacks, and splinters, and places where the boards have been torn up....

While the other Educator is correct in saying there is no alliteration in “Mother to Son,” one could argue that Hughes uses internal rhyme in the poem. Internal rhyme is defined as when two or more...

The poem “Mother to Son” was published by the poet Langston Hughes in 1922. It is written from a mother’s perspective, as she tells her son about the struggles in life. She does so by comparing...

The language of Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son" is colloquial and informal. The poem does not have a formal structure. The language represents the rhythms and diction of actual speech. This...

The speaker in “Mother to Son” is, unsurprisingly, a mother addressing her son. She begins by telling him about her life, using the metaphor of a flight of stairs. Her life has not been a crystal...

Sometimes students confuse the author of a poem with the speaker of the poem. In fiction, readers readily assume that the person who tells the story is not the author himself; the author has...

The lesson in "Mother to Son" is clearly stated, albeit as part of an extended metaphor. In the final third of the poem, the mother exhorts her son: So boy, don’t you turn back. Don’t you set down...

The answer is A: The narrator describes a tiring climb up a beat-up staircase, which represents her persistence through difficulties and challenges in life. The other options are incorrect...

One characteristic of modernist poetry is the use of symbolism. In "Mother to Son," the speaker uses lots of symbolism to convey her message to her son. For example, she tells her son twice that...

They both have a feeling of endurance and fortitude. Both poems are from the viewpoint of a mother, or of a strong black woman who has gone through a lot of trials. In "The Negro Mother" those...

First of all, it's important to note that the staircase is an allegory for the mother's life. An allegory is a literary device which is used to reveal a hidden message, meaning, or moral. In this...

I encourage my students to use a pneumonic device, known as SPIT M & Ms, to analyze most poems. Here are the basics: Speaker: an African-American mother, probably a domestic, encouraging her...

I can't find any examples of similes in the poem; similes are where you compare two things using the words "like" or "as." Something very similar though, is a metaphor--it is the exact same thing,...

The age of the son being addressed by his mother is never stated in this poem. However, we have clues that help us determine how old he is. For example, although she calls him "boy," the way she...

While the extended metaphor in Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son" is established in lines 2-7, it ends up being the central focus of the entire poem. The poem begins with a "mother" character...

In Langston Hughes’s poem “Mother to Son,” the speaker tells her son that life will be difficult, but he must keep going anyway. She explains that her life has been hard—“no crystal stair.” Her...

This delightful poem consists of a narrator telling her son that life can get hard but simultaneously encouraging him to never give up, no matter what life throws at him. While we don't know...

Here is how I have annotated the poem, according to the question in my book, which asks: "How is the central metaphor of climbing stairs a particularly appropriate idea for conveying this poem's...

Langston Hughes’ “Mother to Son” is an inspirational poem in which a mother imparts an important life lesson to her grown son, but this lesson works on two distinct levels. One is a universal level...

The person speaking in this poem is the poet's mother. Her purpose is to tell her son both that life will be a hard climb for him as a black man as it has been for her but that he should never give...

Mother To Son is typical of what you would expect from such a title - a mother wanting to give her son the best advice based on her own experiences. The mother relates these experiences by...

This is a truly interesting comparison. If I were writing this essay, I would organize my ideas into three main topics I wished to compare and contrast, being sure to make selections that show...

Langston Hughes uses a variety of poetic devices, or figurative language, in "Mother to Son" to characterize the mother as a hard-working, determined woman who cares deeply for her son. Extended...

We cannot write your interpretation of Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son" for you. However, we can give you ideas to discuss. Let's start with metaphor. What's the central metaphor of the poem? For...

In Langston Hughes' "Mother to Son" stairs are the central metaphor that conveys the poem's themes of generational sacrifice and maternal love. In terms of African American experience, the poem...

"Mother to Son" is a 1922 poem from American writer Langston Hughes's (1902–1967). It is a monologue spoken from a mother to her son, in which the mother metaphorically presents life as a...

As "Mother to Son" opens, readers are made aware of a few circumstances in the first lines of the poem. We understand that the poem is written in first-person point of view from a mother's...

The poems "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes and "Advice to My Son" by Peter Meinke are similar in that they both concern parents offering advice to their children. In Hughes's poem, the speaker...

"Mother to Son" is narrated by the eponymous mother, who implores her son to work hard and persevere in his life no matter how difficult or hopeless it might sometimes appear to be. The mother...

In "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes, what is not being said holds as much significance as what the mother does tell the son. What the mother does say: Her own life has had its share of...