not lead straight ahead:

And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.

It is dangerous to climb a staircase in the dark. The light, therefore, stands for safety and certainty, as well as hope. It is one of the main properties of crystal, that it sparkles in light and reflects it. The real staircase, however, is often plunged into darkness, and this darkness covers a multitude of dubious, difficult choices, as well as being dangerous.

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

He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring."

In this context, the stairway takes on a new resonance that breathes hope, promise, and aspiration into the black people, who, like the oppressed ancient Israelites, are God's beloved children. No matter how dreary and splintered her staircase is, the mother is seeing herself as one of God's angels ascending and descending it and wants her son to be on that staircase so that he too will receive God's blessing.

The purpose of the Langston Hughes poem "Mother to Son" is to illustrate, through narrative, the difficulties that previous generations of black people have endured, sometimes as a sacrifice to ensure a better future for the next generation.

It is significant that Hughes chooses to make the narrator of the poem a black woman. This device shifts the reader away from the convention of a father passing down life's lessons to a son, while also centralizing the often neglected struggles of black women in a racist system.

In the first line, the mother makes it clear that, though she is a woman, she has never been placed on a pedestal: "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair." She narrates a story of struggle, characterized by the "splinters," "tacks," and other obstructions that have hurt her as she labored on. However, she remained resilient:

But all the time
I’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.

The mother's purpose in telling her son this is to motivate him to endure, even when life becomes unbearably difficult:

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.

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 staircase. Instead of climbing a crystal staircase, the mother climbs a staircase with "tacks," "splinters," "boards torn up," "and places with no carpet on the floor." All of these images emphasize the difficulty of the mother's journey upward and her need to push forward despite obstacles in her path. The diction the mother uses is vernacular speech--the speech of everyday. She speaks the way a woman who did not have the benefit of an education might speak--a woman who's always had to work hard for what she has. For example, she uses words like "ain't" and phrases like "no crystal stair." Other examples of her vernacular speech are "I'se" and "a-climbing." Her diction reinforces the idea that she comes from a humble background but keeps working to reach something better.  

Langston Hughes's poem "Mother to Son" lacks a distinct setting, but it's clear that the what the speaker is doing during the poem is talking to her son. There is a sense that this is happening at a casual place—I see her on a big chair in a living room talking to her son on a couch, but that's just my perspective—but there is no definite place. However, through the title and the informal opening line that addresses her son directly, "Well, son, I'll tell you..."  it's clear that the speaker is in a comfortable place.

However, throughout the poem, there is a sense of place when the speaker is talking about where she came from. She lived in poverty as life's had "tacks in it, / And splinters, / And boards torn up, / And places with no carpet on the floor— / Bare."

Both the setting gathered from the first line and the place the speaker describes helps generate meaning in this poem. Both things reveal that this poem is a passing of knowledge and a call for this mother's son to thrive in the world because if she could make it with no "crystal stair," so can he.

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. Hughes employs anaphora in lines 4-6 that all begin with “and” as the speaker describes the obstacles and disadvantages that dominated her life. The use of anaphora here mirrors the cumulative effect of all of these injustices: it is as if Hughes is literally piling them on in the poem in the same way that challenges built up in the mother’s life. Anaphora is used again in lines 10-12 to describe the mother’s movement through life that sometimes brought her success as she reached “landin’s” and turned “corners.” The repetition of “and” in these lines reflects the poem’s emphasis on achieving progress through a refusal to quit.

In "Mother to Son," Langston Hughes uses a parallel structure, with the "crystal stair" phrase repeated at both the beginning and the end of the poem, to lend a sense of completion to the anecdotal narrative and underscore the extended metaphor of life as a journey upstairs. The poem is written in the voice of the mother, giving it an increased sense of authority as the mother conveys her message that, if she can "keep climbin'" despite the difficulties of her journey, her son also must never "set down . . . cause you find it's kinder hard."

The dialect features used throughout the poem help further heighten its immediacy and verisimilitude, or truth. Elements such as "I'se," "a-climbin'," and "ain't" suggest that the speaker is a black woman from a certain generation and part of the United States, which immediately gives the reader a better understanding of what the "tacks," "splinters," and "boards torn up" in the stair of her life might represent.

The use of repetition in the poem helps to underscore the mother's message that life is sometimes relentless in the difficulties it presents; the repeated "and"—"And reachin' . . . and turnin' . . . and sometimes . . . " intensifies and prolongs the sense of obstacle. But this repetition is employed again at the end of the poem, to give also the impression that the speaker's perseverance has been equally endless: "I'se still goin', honey / I'se still climbin'."

The poem uses an extended metaphor, dialect, and imagery to convey the theme that life is difficult, but you still have to be persistent and a hard worker.

A metaphor is a comparison that is direct. It says something is something (or not something) as opposed to saying something is “like” something. For example, the poem begins with a metaphor.

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.

Life is compared to a crystal stair, or an easy and beautiful journey. The mother is telling her son that life has been difficult for her, and there have been barriers to her success.

Dialect is also used in the poem. Dialect is the special kind of speaking certain groups use. In this case, the dialect is likely that of a working class woman.

I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,

In this case, the words are written as the speaker would say them and not in standard English. This helps to characterize the speaker and tell us more about her, such as her upbringing and education level.

Finally, the poem has a lot of imagery. It is so descriptive that you can really see what the speaker is describing. The descriptions of tacks and splinters and the image of the crystal stair itself are very specific and allow you to visualize the difficulties.

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 the verse.

The mother in the poem speaks in a vivid dialect, using the non-standard grammar of her subculture in phrases such as "ain't been no." The flavor of her black world and her religious training also come through in her image of her life not being a crystal staircase, an allusion to the Biblical story of Jacob climbing a stairway to heaven. This idyllic staircase provides a contrast to the many stairs this women has climbed. Hughes uses vivid imagery—description using the five senses of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell—to show the roughness of her stairs, which have

splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor

What a wonderful poem.

In Langston Hughes' poem, "Mother to Son," he adopts the voice of a mother speaking to her son about the hardships in life. The primary literary device used here is an extended metaphor.

eNotes.com offers the following definition:

An extended metaphor…establishes a principal subject (comparison) and subsidiary subjects (comparisons).

Another definition, offered by Meyer Literature:

An extended metaphor is a sustained comparison in which part or all of a poem consists of a series of related metaphors.

In this poem, the speaker (the mother) is describing her life, saying:

Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

The imagery here is specific. Hughes wants the reader to imagine what a crystal staircase might look like: glittering like diamonds. However, extending the theme of a staircase, the speaker provides images that contradict the idea of beautiful set of stairs with all the things that can be problematic with stairs. This is the extension of the metaphor, and the images she provides are meant to represent bumps along the road of life.

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.

However, while she has faced these hardships, she reminds her son that she has still made progress up that staircase. It has been hard, but she has still be able to move forward.

I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners...

So she encourages her son, through these images that relate to a staircase but are meant to symbolize the journey of life, not to sit down and give up, but to keep going, just as she still is, on the stairway of life.

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 comparing life to a staircase

meant to symbolize the journey of life.

It is an apt metaphor as a staircase has "ups and downs" and, when life is hard, there is no need to give up; just as the mother herself has been "... reachin' landin's,/ And turnin' corners..."

Any particular experience- or life itself - may appear to be a "crystal stair" with all you could imagine from a glittering and glamorous life. She reminds her son that her "crystal stair" has had it's fair share of "...tacks in it, / And splinters."

The mother wants her son to understand that he can withstand all the hardships and that it will be worth it but that he must not "turn back" or "sit down." The message is clear. The son must persevere.

In the poem "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes, the narrator, a mother admonishing her son, uses the metaphor of a staircase to symbolize the journey through life. She speaks through personal experience that life isn't always easy. Just as a wooden staircase has tacks, splinters, missing boards, and portions that are bare of carpet, life has its continual problems and setbacks. In contrast, an ideal staircase would be made of flawless crystal. She urges her son not to turn back, sit down, or fall down, but instead to keep climbing steadily, regardless of what he might encounter.

The personal life of Langston Hughes would have prepared him well for writing this poem, for he certainly grew up under difficult circumstances. His parents separated when Hughes was very young, and his father left for Mexico. Since his mother was usually traveling while looking for work, Hughes was raised by his grandmother. After his grandmother died, Hughes lived with family friends for awhile, then as a teen moved back in with his mother and her new husband.

Hughes was renowned for using his personal experiences as the basis of his writings, and this poem is no exception. We can see that Hughes went through many difficulties in his personal life that the poem alludes to as imperfections in the staircase. Despite the setbacks he often encountered, though, Hughes continued to climb the staircase of his literary career, and he eventually became famous as a poet.