Explication style essay exploring Langston Hughes’ poem “Mother to Son”
Introduction
The poem “mother to son” by Hughes is about an experienced mother who is offering advice to her son about some of the challenges which he is likely to encounter in his life. It is a 20 line poem contained in one line stanza. The poem offers great advice to people that no matter what one faces in life, he must never give up. The mother giving the advice is a representative of reality, and her thoughts sound like a mother surrounded by misery. The poem is a dramatic monologue, which means that it has only one speaker who is the mother advising her son. This assignment is an explication essay that will be examining the poem’s sentences and passages to interpret their meaning at a detailed level.
The author’s dialectic choices are of short versions of the world, like “reaching” instead of reaching, “landins” instead of landings. This has a significant effect on making the verses seem like a song. The mother’s words are also frank to give the intended meaning more directly. According to the author, the woman is speaking on the essentials of being determined and experienced in life. Imagery has also been used in the poem, like in the case of a staircase which represents life.. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Line 1 “Well, son, I’ll tell you.”
It is the first line of the poem and the first words from the mother. This verse is very important in the poem since it sets up the beginning of the conversation between the mother and the son in an informal way. This also indicates that the mother has something to say to her son and maybe telling him what he needs to say is not going to be much easy.
Line 2-7
“Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”(Hughes, line 2) is the main thing that the mother wants to tell her son. In this line, the mother contrasts her life with one that is easy to go or progress. This line also represents the experiences that the mother has been through in her life to come into a conclusion that her life has not been a “crystal stair” Hughes, line 2). To her, moving forward with our life is represented by a staircase that has “tacks” and “splinters” (Hughes, line 3), which are protruding from the staircase wood. This is to imply that moving forward with her life has not been easy since she has met a lot of challenges. Imagery has been used where the staircase is the mother’s life, and the tacks and splinters are the challenges she has met in life. The wood used to build the carpet also is torn up in some parts, and in some places, the entire board is missing.
It is a fact that the missing boards in the staircase imply that the mother has lacked support in her life. Also, the missing boards indicate that the mother has missed several links in her life, and in her understanding, she does not know what to do or what comes next in her life. Lines 5, 6, and 7 add to the existing painful, and at some occasion’s scary experience, which she has told her son. The remaining boards which do remain on the staircase, and her next landings do not all have “carpet” (Hughes, line 6). Here, the mother is describing her low-quality condition of life, which she has to deal with in her life through the struggle for her to be alive.
Lines 8 to 13
Regardless of the challenges and poor conditions that the mother has faced in her life, in the above lines, the mother’s life still has to move on. The mother wants to ensure that above everything; her son learns that “all the time” in her entire life, she has struggled, and she has also been “a-climbing’ on” (Hughes, line 9) the stairs which are her metaphorical life. In describing distinctive times in her life, the mother inserts landings in the stairs. This represents the areas where the mother might be able to rest in the stairs, which are her life. Anytime she arrives at these “landins’ (Hughes, line 10)she goes ahead and turns the corner not afraid of what might be lurking on the other side even if she is going into “dark” (Hughes, line 12) This is one of the mothers attribute that she has hopes to pass and get to her son even if she is aware that bad things may happen. However, she is not afraid of the dangers involved, and she is strong to face them. This is a clear indication that the mother giving the above advice is a very strong woman, not forgetting her acts of courage. She can do anything to make sure that her son is well off. The mother also implies that she has been forced to go to dark on many occasions, and in fact, in her life she has never been into the light. This is to mean that she might be first there or maybe one amongst those who have witnessed the very dark corridors of life.
Lines 14-19
In the last stanza of the poem, the mother addresses her son more directly again. The mother here uses “boy” (Hughes, line 14) word, which is intended to draw his son’s attention to make sure that her son is paying attention to what she is saying. Also, calling her son “boy” means that her son is of average age and not that old. The mother further makes it clear to her son that no matter what may be happening to his life, at the present or in the future, he must not “turn back” (Hughes, line 14). This is because there will be nothing back down the staircase that will aid him in his life and but he must always focus on the obstacles ahead.
The mother tells her son that he must not “set down on the steps” (Hughes, line 15) This means that there should be no at any point when he must go back from where he has come from, but instead, he should continue moving. Any fear or hesitation will complicate his life, making it even worse. The son, therefore, will need to persevere if he wants to go through all his hard parts of his life. Also, the mother is very cautious with her son since she warns her to be careful not to fall “Don’t you fall now” (Hughes, line 17). She further advises her son that the staircase, which is his life, must at all the times handled with care since some parts of the staircase have some boards broken, tacks, and also splinters, which are to be avoided. According to the mother, the obstacles in one’s life, which are not of their own making can only be emphasized the obstacles which are brought by the choices which he will make in his life. The staircase, which is his life, will become harder depending on how he deals with the staircase. However, despite all these challenges, the mother reiterates that even when her life has been very difficult, she is continuing to move up. The mother is “still climbin” (Hughe, line 19) through all her challenging situations.
Last line: “And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”
The author of the poem concludes the poem through the use of repetition. The mother again, in conclusion, repeats that her life has not been a crystal stair. This has been used to emphasize that indeed her life has not been very easy. Repeating these words also is to clear any doubt to incase her son does not believe him. Repeating this phrase has also given the poem rhetoric impacts and musical quality.
Conclusion
The narrator of the poem, who is the mother, successively gives the best advice to her son. The staircase in this poem has been used to symbolize life. The missing boards, tacks, and splinters are the challenges that one has to meet in his life. The mother’s advice to his son is that no matter how life his, one must keep going. Challenges in life must be there, but one must never turn back but must keep going.
Work cited
Hughes, Langston. “Mother to son.” The collected poems of Langston Hughes (1994): 30.<https://www.washoeschools.net/cms/lib/NV01912265/Centricity/Domain/1104/5%20Poems.pdf>