Ariel Docuyanan

Yates- Period 4
IB HL English Yr 2
May 28 2015

Langston Hughes Mother to Son Essay Rewritten

The poem Mother to Son, written by Langston Hughes, is an allegorical poem that is
told as a lesson from parent to child to describe the hardships the mother faced growing up and
while raising the child. It uses the crystal stair as a metaphor for her struggles, colloquial
language to show the racial and cultural obstacles she may have faced, and syntax and
structure to emphasize her determination to obtain happiness,.
In the first line of the poem, the narrator, speaking to her son, tells him that her life hasnt
been a crystal stair to describe the difficulties she faced as a black women. It can be assumed
that the mother in the poem is African American because of her use of colloquial language and
considering the fact that the poem is written by Langston Hughes, whose writing was most alive
during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. A crystal staircase provides the imagery of a
staircase that is clean, flawless, and in pristine condition. It also entails a affluence which is
contrary to the staircase present in the mothers actual life. Her stair is described as having
tacks in it, splinters, boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor, an indication
of her poor financial situation and status. The staircase represents the social hierarchy within
society that those who are born privileged can easily climb up but those who are not strain to
make advances in. Thus, she uses imagery that elicits a sense of pain, the splinters and the
torn up boards, to recreate the feelings of dismay and hopeless over her situation.
The problems that the mother faced are revealed to be mostly cultural and racial
based through the use of colloquial language. In the poem, the mother uses words such as
aint instead of hasnt and climbin rather than climbing. This may suggest that the mother

is uneducated, a possibility considering the lack of education available to African Americans in

the 1930s because of racism. It also suggests that despite the mothers social handicaps, she
takes pride in her cultural identity. The mother is unafraid to speak the way she wants to in front
of her child. This is evident in the way the mother uses stair instead of staircases in her talk
to her son. The denotation of the word stair is a series of steps. While staircase would be
more commonly seen in proper English conversation, and stair may sound awkward to some
ears, using stair in this case is not incorrect. It is simply a different choice of words.
The syntax and structure used in the poem is used by Hughes to show the mothers
persistence to achieve happiness, although she is looked down upon for being the matriarch of
the family. It may also be assumed that the mother in this poem is single based on the context
of the poem and its arrangement. In the poem, the word and is used repeatedly in the
beginning of lines to emphasize the amount of difficulties she face. For example, the mother
states that she has been a-climbin on/ And reachin landins/ And turnin corners/ And
sometimes goin in the dark to show her undying persistence. If she were not a single mother,
its unlikely that the main focus of lesson would be in her struggles nor would the title be what it
is. Another element used is caesura, through the use of two dashes, to bring attention to the
message in the following line. The poet does this to bring shift the tone of the poem from
troubled to optimistic. In lines seventeen, mother warns her son dont you fall now-- and
continues with For Ise still goin, honey in the next line to encourage her son not to fall to racial
prejudices. Even with an upbringing and skin color that was not ideal for her time period, she
shows that since she was able to keep a positive outlook on life; he should be able to do so as
well.
Langston Hughess Mother to Son, uses the metaphor of the crystal stair, colloquial
language, and syntax and structure in a matriarchs lesson to her son that begins with class and
racial struggles and ends with a message of resilience and individualism.