“MOTHER TO SON” Langston Hughes

James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet,social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of thethen-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "the negro was in vogue" which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue". Langston Hughes was first recognized as an important literary figure during the 1920s, a period known as the "Harlem Renaissance" because of the number of emerging black writers. Du Bose Heyward wrote in the New York Herald Tribune in 1926: "Langston Hughes, although only twenty-four years old, is already conspicuous in the group of Negro intellectuals who are dignifying Harlem with a genuine art life. . . . It is, however, as an individual poet, not as a member of a new and interesting literary group, or as a spokesman for a race that Langston Hughes must stand or fall. . . . Always intensely subjective, passionate, keenly sensitive to beauty and possessed of an unfaltering musical sense, Langston Hughes has given us a 'first book' that marks the opening of a career well worth watching." “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes is a short twenty line poem that packs significant meaning in the short verse. Hughes uses an older female speaker to give advice to a son who is part of the younger generation. In the poem, Hughes uses the device of an extended metaphor to describe the life of the mother. The extended metaphor compares the mother’s life to a staircase. The line “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” begins and ends the poem. With this line, Hughes quickly establishes that the speaker in the poem has not had an easy life. The concept of a crystal staircase gives the reader the impression of complete opulence. 

The reader can indulge in inferring that it would be someone with supreme wealth and someone who did not have to work as hard as the speaker did. By using the imagery of a crystal staircase as the opposite of her staircase, the reader immediately knows before learning any of the details of her staircase that she has not had an easy life. Hughes then goes on to illustrate the staircase of life that the speaker has lived. The speaker’s staircase has splinters and tacks. Both of these would be symbolic of the mother having suffered many hurts. A splinter or a tack will not cause life threatening injury, but they certainly will cause pain. If the splinters and tacks are on every step along the way, it is symbolic that her life has always had pain. 

Another descriptive detail of the mother’s staircase is that of boards being torn up. If a person walks on a staircase in which boards are missing, it gives the symbolic value that the mother’s life was filled with more dangerous situations than just tacks and splinters. It is symbolic that the mother has had gaping holes in her life that she had to somehow step over to arrive at the present place in her life that she is now. Not every step along the way was safe one, but despite this she perseveres. The speaker addresses the son by saying that he should not sit down or fall down just

because his staircase is hard to climb. In the mother’s eyes, the son should never give up. Instead he should see her as an example because it was not easy for her, but she never gave up. With the extended metaphor of a staircase as a symbol of the steps one takes in life, one can infer that as long as a person is living, there will be more steps to climb. It is like a precursor to the concept of the popular modern song lyric “stairway to heaven”. The mother is symbolically climbing the stairway to heaven and the path to heaven is not always an easy journey. The mother wants the

son to know that heaven is worth by taking life one step at a time, even if the stairs are full of tacks and splinters.

Hughes also illustrates the sense of identity in the speaker with the use of vernacular

language. Hughes writes using the language that the mother would actually speak with. Some examples of the vernacular language include: ain’t, finds it’s kinder hard, and dropping the final “g” in words such as goin’ or turnin’. The use of vernacular language gives the sense that this is a less educated woman. The less grammatical language gives the sense that the speaker wants something better for the son, but she knows he will still have to work for it. On the road of life, many trials arise that one must overcome to make his or her life feel complete. In Langston Hughes’s poem, “Mother to Son,” these trials are a subject of concern for one mother. Hughes’ “ability to project himself” is seen in his use of dialect, metaphors, and tone. Although the dialect by itself does not seem to be an important quality, however, “when it is presented with all dramatic skill”, it is important. In “Mother to Son”, Hughes uses dialect to show that the mother is not as well educated as many people. When she says phrases such as “For I’se still goin’, honey,” it is understood that she means that she is still going, even though it is not clearly said. The dialect may also show what area she may live in. When she talks about “boards torn up” it shows that she was from the poor part of the town. It does not seem relevant that she has torn up boards, but these are not found in a wealthy person’s mansion. Although the grammar of this dialect is wrong, it makes the woman seem more like a real person and less like someone who is fictional. Another quality that is prevalent in this poem is its metaphors. She says that her life has not been fancy or easy, but she is getting by. While climbing her stairs she is “reaching’ landing’s, / and turning’ corners, / and sometimes going’ in the dark”.

 Although these are “homely” things someone may face on a staircase, they actually mean things that she has encountered in her life. She says that she reaches landings, which means that she has come up on place where she could rest. When she says she turns corners, it is when her life changes and she has to turn away from her original path. Her final comparison is when she goes in the dark, which

are times in her life when she does not know what she can do to help herself. The metaphors in this poem show a conflict in the mother’s life and make the poem seem complete. The third quality that Langston Hughes uses in his poem is the tone of the speaker. When she explains to him not to “set you down on the steps / ‘Cause your find it’s kinder hard. /don’t you fall down now,” the tone in her words in compassionate. The mother is simply trying to tell her son that she knows what he is going through because she has been in rough times herself. Those rough times

were troublesome but she had the strength to go on and get past them. All she wants for her son is for him to keep climbing, and never give up. Winslow believes that “enduring exuberance” shows her youthful spirit towards life. She wants this all because “(she is) still goin’, honey, / (she is) still climbin ‘, /and life for (her) ain’t been no crystal stair”. This poem, “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes teaches a valuable life lesson about never giving up. Even when life is getting more difficult and one thinks they cannot go on, they need to keep climbing.