++Mother to Son by LANGSTON HUGHES++

=ANALYSIS=

Mother to Son is a really great poem written by a famous African American writer, Langston Hughes. In this poem, Hughes develops a kind of negative metaphor by comparing the speaker’s life with a staircase that ‘ain’t been no crystal stair’. Throughout this poem, the mother develops the metaphor by describing what she doesn’t have rather than what she has. The poem started with “Well son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”. Here, crystal stair was described as a perfect life. However, the mother’s life is full of pain and suffers. She wants her son to realize that life is not always comfort. “It's had tacks in it, And splinters”. She had to live in a difficulty and it hurts her. Besides, ‘boards torn up’ is also another which portrays her life as unstable and always faces an unexpected problem. She ought to live in poverty and comparing her life with no carpet on the floor-bare. Despite any obstacles in her life, she wants her son to follow her steps ho keep on going up in her life. “But all the time I’se been a-climbin’on”. She never regret because she know that there are certain time in her life, where she had a little bit of stability. No matter what problems come, she must keep on struggling and surviving.

Moreover, she wants to motivate her son that although there are darkness and sorrow in her life, but there still a moment that had lighten our life and will make us stronger to face any possibilities that come to us. Sometimes we lost in our journey, and sometimes we feel that there is no more hope for us. Here, we can see another metaphor; ‘ain’t been no light’, which light is compare with hope. Finally, the mother reminds her son again to never give up and she wants him to be strong in his life. Don’t let our sorrow, pain and trouble to stop us from going up in our life.

In short, this poem had taught us how’s life it is. Life will make us to be a better and the experience will mature ourselves.

=THEME=

Langston Hughes' moving poem "Mother to Son" empowers not only the son, but also the reader with precious words of wisdom. Through the skillful use of literary devices such as informal language, symbolism, metaphors, repetition, as well as clever use of format, Hughes manages to muster up the image of a mother lovingly, yet firmly, talking to her son about life. 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.

=MORAL VALUE=

The moral value that can be found in the poem of ‘Mother to Son’ is that we have to be strong to fight the obstacles in our life. To achieve the successfulness in our life, we have to realize that our life is not always in the bright side. There are also the dark sides when we have to face all the difficulties in order to fulfill our dream. Although, sometimes you will find that it is quite hard to remain the way you are, you have to keep holding. Sooner or later, we will eventually succeed in our life.

Other moral value in this poem is the relationship between the mother and her son. The mother advises her son to be grateful in his life and keep fighting for life for she will always be supporting his son. “Don’t you fall now. For I’se still climbin’“.