The speaker offers valuable advice to her son using carefully chosen words in which she admits that life has not been easy for her yet despite the numerous stumbling blocks along her path, she keeps moving on, always hoping for a better tomorrow. From the poet’s autobiography, it is possible that the events described in the poem reflect the poet’s actual life. The persona in Langston Hughes “Mother to Son” uses some poetic elements such as metaphors, negation, diction, repetition, direct address, colloquial language, symbolism, and dash to emphasize the theme of hope, determination and never giving up.
The speaker uses effective metaphors to drive home her point. McMillan Dictionary defines ‘crystal’ as ‘clear glass of very good quality.’ When the speaker uses the first metaphor to compare her life’s journey to the look of a crystal staircase, the rest follow in quick succession to give the poem its meaning as early as in the second line of “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes: “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” (2).
A stair denotes a climbing motion. We usually climb up the stair though we may as well descend on it. A typical successful life usually involves climbing. Thus, the speaker is telling her son that his journey up will not be easy either. It will not be as clear and as transparent as crystal. In this particular line, the speaker uses negation to say what her life has not been. It has certainly not been a bed of roses. Soon after the negation, she reveals what her life has been: tacks, splinters, torn up boards. According to Cambridge Dictionary, a tack is ‘a short, sharp nail with a wide flat end’ while a splinter is ‘a small, sharp, piece of wood, glass, or similar material that has broken off a larger piece.’ A board is ‘a flat piece of hard material such as wood or plastic (Cambridge Dictionary, 2018). The speaker’s choice of words or metaphors is deliberate because all the three words speak of objects capable of inflicting sharp pain or being hazardous should they come into contact with the human body. A tack sticking into someone’s toe nail, for instance, can elicit a cry of pain from the affected person. Thus, these metaphors emphasize the hard life the speaker has led but has not given up yet.
Besides some of the words defined above, the speaker’s diction also has an essential bearing on the overall meaning of the poem. First is the word ‘bare' (7) that appears alone in Langston Hughes’ poem, "Mother to Son." And it comes soon after an em dash, indicative of a pause. Why would the speaker pause before continuing a conversation with one word? It is because the word ‘bare' completes the meaning of a troubled life. It comes after the skillful usage of anaphora and continues to emphasize the fact that life is not easy. Another word is ‘Well," which is the first word of the poem. The usage of ‘well' here is to draw the son into a conversation which he needs to critically attend to because she has something fundamental to say. Finally, the words ‘son' and ‘honey' reveal how deep the mother's love is towards her son that she finds it very important to offer him crucial advice.
The persona makes good use of repetition to emphasize her determination to succeed against all odds. The line by Langstone Hughes in “Mother to Son,” “And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair,” (20) has been repeated for the son’s benefit to get the message that there will always be difficult situations in life so he should approach life with a sober mind. Her repetition also reveals her honesty because she tells her son the plain truth. Also, the word "And’ has been repeated three times to introduce the three metaphors. This use of anaphora gives the poem not only its musicality but adds to the meaning of the poem in that sorrow upon sorrow seem to have been added on the mother’s predicament.
The use of direct address is necessary because it makes the poem sound natural- that a mother is speaking to her son. She uses the second person to address him in "Mother to Son" by Langstone Hughes, “Well, son, I’ll tell you… So boy, don’t you turn back” (1,14). The direct address is significant because it draws her son into a mother-to-son conversation, giving the advice intimacy. Thus, the advice of climbing on is likely to be taken more seriously since using the second person helps to draw in the concerned person. Also, “Don’t you set down on the steps” in Langston’s “Mother to Son” tells the son there is no room for turning back.
The use of colloquial language such as ‘ain’t’ ‘reachin’ and ‘climbin’ aids in the overall understanding of the poem because they place the poem in its context. It is the language of the uneducated or people who live in the countrysides. The speaker is alluding to poverty when she mentions the lack of a carpet on the floor. It is possible she is advising her son to scale the heights where poverty is concerned.
Symbolism has been used in the words ‘dark’ and ‘light.’ Darkness symbolizes misery, an obscure life. She is like a blind person groping in the dark. The speaker is unable to see where her life is headed. There has been no light in her life because there are no good memories, nothing significant in her life that has caused her to smile. Despite these dark moments, she has to keep walking.
From Hughes autobiography, it is possible the events described in this poem reflect on his own life at some point. Hughes did not grow up in an ideal home because his mother and father separated shortly after he was born. His dad wanted to explore the world and get rich so moved to Mexico (Hughes 15). When Hughes, his mother, and grandmother joined him in Mexico, an earthquake occurred where the emergence of tarantulas scared his mother into returning to the States (Hughes 16). Sometime he would live with his mother who struggled to look for jobs (Hughes 14). Then there are times he lived with his proud grandmother of Indian descent who would rather die than be caught begging (Hughes 17). Hughes, therefore, lived a life of deprivation where sometimes all they had to eat were wild dandelions and salted pork (Hughes 17). His grandmother sometimes had to rent out her house to pay her mortgage which she never cleared at the point of death such that the home was repossessed (Hughes 16). It is possible the person giving Hughes this advice is his grandmother, “Something about my grandmother’s stories… taught me the uselessness of crying about anything” (Hughes, pp. 17). His grandmother may not have had much, but she left him with countless stories that imparted wisdom in him and which had an element of hope, determination, striving, and fighting for something. All of his grandmother's stories always moved towards a heroic end (Hughes 17).
The speaker in Hughes’ poem offers profound advice that not only applies to her son but to all in the world who would care to listen. She is a mother who has experienced a lot of trouble in her life but has never given up so who is her son to give up? Through the use of poetic devices such as metaphors, negation, repetition, direct address, colloquial language, symbolism, dash, and tone, the speaker succeeds in sharing the message in the poem which is hope, determination and the spirit to keep on fighting. What the reader carries home is a hopeful, determined tone.
Works Cited
Cambridge Dictionary. “Board.” https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/board. Accessed 13 December 2018.
Cambridge Dictionary. “Splinter.” https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/splinter. Accessed 13 December 2018.
Cambridge Dictionary. “Tack.” https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/tack. Accessed 13 December 2018.
Hughes Langston. “Mother to Son." Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47559/mother-to-son. Accessed 13 December 2018.
Hughes, Langston. The Big Sea: An Autobiography. New York, Hill and Wang, 1940.
McMillan Dictionary. “Crystal.” https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/crystal. Accessed 13 December 2018.
