A Mother’s Wisdom: Empowering Her Child To Persevere

One of Langston Hughes earliest poems, “Mother to Son” is a piece of empowerment in the form of a conversation between a mother and her child. Her own upbringing and traumatic experiences, allows her to instill words of wisdom into her son as he begins his journey. “Mother to Son” successfully acknowledges unequal opportunity in America as well as the struggles one may face in attempting to live the American Dream. Langston Hughes uses diction, metaphor, and imagery in order to convey the story of a woman for whom opportunity was tight, yet still persevered.

In “Mother to Son”, Hughes reveals through his diction that perseverance is key in ones life despite the cards you may be dealt with. When the mother says, “I’se”, “goin”, and “reachin’ landin’s,” her dialect is revealed. These words, not written in standard english, helps us characterize the speaker and reveals things regarding her education level. It is obvious that she is one who was not given the opportunity to be educated as well as others. She goes to on say, ‘For I’se stil goin’, honey,”(18) emphasizing that it was indeed her obligation to keep moving forward despite her circumstances. Aside from her education level, when the mother describes her living condition to be one consumed with darkness and torn up boards, her socioeconomic status is presented. Perhaps, she lives in poverty, a tenement of some sort in which African Americans were known to reside in. Undoubtedly, the mother presented makes it clear that her living conditions were certainly not ideal nor comfortable. However, it is evident that she refused to become nihilistic and instead saw that because the things around her were not changing, she first had to change the way she thought about it.

Hughes begin...

... middle of paper ...

...others conflicts.

The mother in the poem represents the many generations of African Americans for whom opportunity was scarce for, have endured pain, who's had a troubled past and was given every reason to give up. Life for Africans “ain’t been no crystal stair” since the beginning of time. Since Slavery to present time they have just been pushing through in hope of upward mobility. Langston Hughes successfully acknowledges the mindset of those who have been through hardships and have found it easier to give up, yet still remained strong. “Mother to Son” teaches a valuable lesson for anyone who encounters struggles, reminding them to never give up. On the road of life, you will encounter trials and tribulations, however he teaches us that we can and will overcome such things for pain is temporary and there is a way out.