Mother to Son by Langston Hughes Poem Analysis Essay Example

The poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes is a very empowering poem. This poem was published back in 1922, during a time when black people were being mistreated in a racist society. This poem alludes to the many struggles and challenges black people had during this time, dangers that white people didn’t have to face. At the same time, they can overcome these challenges through perseverance and fighting back. In the poem, a mother tells her son the truth about how life isn’t easy and life is full of obstacles and challenges, and no matter what, to always push through life and get through these challenges. Langston Hughes uses anaphora, imagery, and metaphors in his poem Mother to Son to convey the importance of having the determination to go forward in life despite what life throws at you.

Langston Hughes uses anaphora in the poem to emphasize the challenges that lie ahead in life for the son. Anaphora is a rhetorical device where a word or sequence of words is repeated at the beginning of neighboring clauses and sentences. In this case the poem “Mother to Son”, would be the word “and '' used at the beginning of these lines. At the beginning of the poem, the mother begins to describe life as not being a crystal stair and saying it’s had tacks in it and also by saying “And splinters,/And boards torn up,/And places with no carpet on the floor—” (lines 4-6). By repeating the same word “and” at the beginning of the lines, Langston Hughes puts an emphasis on how hard and dangerous the stairway of life can be and how it’s not an easy way to get through life. Life can be a miserable place sometimes and be the toughest thing ever. Langston Hughes does anaphora again in lines 10-12 and also uses the word “and”, but utilizes it in a different way. After the mother tells her son about how hard life can be, she starts to say “But all the time/I’se been a-climbin’ on,” (lines 8-9) and starts talking about how she has still been moving through life, also saying “And reachin’ landin’s,/And turnin’ corners,/And sometimes goin’ in the dark'' (lines 10-12) to further on talk about going through the journey of life. By repeating the word “and'' at the beginning of these lines, Langston Hughes this time emphasizes on the journey treading through life and how it’s a rocky journey and not just some straight path from start to finish, but a pathway with many twists and turns and drops throughout this journey we call life. By using this anaphora and emphasizing these aspects of life and the journey of life in the poem, the poet emphasizes the main theme of the poem, which is about how life can be difficult but to always keep persevering through life no matter what. 

The second way Langston Hughes uses a literary device in this poem would be through imagery to paint a picture of how difficult life can be. Langston Hughes utilizes imagery by first saying “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” (line 2), meaning to say life isn’t some smooth journey we can just get through so easily. Langston then goes on to describe life by saying “It’s had tacks in it,/And splinters,/And boards torn up,/And places with no carpet on the floor—/Bare.” (lines 3-7), describing life to be very dangerous and rough and even unfortunate at times. By describing life as such things as it containing tacks and splinters and having boards torn up, it paints a picture in the reader’s mind of how tough this journey of life can be and helps us understand the point Langston Hughes is trying to make to us. The mother in the poem then goes on to say “But all the time/I’se been a-climbin’ on,/And reachin’ landin’s,/And turnin’ corners,/And sometimes goin’ in the dark” (lines 9-12), talking about her journey through life and all the different and twists and turns and locations she’s gone through while going through life. The mother also describes her journey through life by saying she's been going on all the time, always climbing and making turns and everything. This helps the reader visualize what going through life is like and helps us understand how rocky life can be. To add to these points, a quote from Adam Eillott’s article saying, “They admire us because we don't give up, we cannot afford to give up, because of our future generations.”(Elliott 9) adds to the theme of perseverance in this poem and how we shouldn't give up. Another quote from Micheal Alatokun says “It is worth reflecting on the impact of this accomplishment” (Olatokun 4) helps to reinforce how perseverance is worth it in the end. Through the utilization of imagery in this poem, Langston Hughes is able to create a vivid image of the message he’s trying to send and is able to portray the main theme of the hardships of life and perseverance in this poem.

Lastly, Langston Hughes uses metaphors in his poems to compare and contrast and give an idea of how life is. He first uses a metaphor when he says “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” (line 2). He compares life to that of a crystal stair and says life isn’t like that at all for them. By using this metaphor, Langston Hughes gives us readers an idea that life isn’t all as smooth and nice as a crystal stair and instead is the opposite, as he begins to describe life as having tacks and splinters in it and torn up boards, it’s also a metaphor in a way that compares life to being painful and difficult at times too, just like what tacks and splinters do to you. 

Through the uses of anaphora, imagery, and metaphors in his poem, Langston Hughes conveys the importance of having the determination to go forward in life despite what life throws at you. Life truly throws challenges and obstacles at you, but it’s all up to you on how you handle those adversities. Will you fall and give up on the challenge or learn to push through and overcome it for the better? Mother to Son by Langston is truly a special poem that moves your soul and makes you think and invigorates a sense of drive to keep on moving forward through this journey of life.