Comparison of Two Poems

The two poems that I will be comparing for this assignment are “Mother to
Son,” by Langston Hughes and “Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden.
These two poems are based on Parental Sacrifice. I will be analyzing and
comparing these two poems using the reader response theory, the Marxist
theory, and the Feminist theory.

The first poem, “Mother to Son,” by Langston Hughes is about a mother telling
her life struggles to his son. As a reader, I felt very emotionally evoked and I
really felt every single line of the poem. The reason for that was that I have
always seen my mother working very hard and sacrificing for me at every
moment in life and I always felt inspired by her. I know how hard it is for a
mother to think only of her child and forget about herself. That’s what my mom
has done for me all her life. So, I reacted very emotionally to this poem and I
felt every single line of it. Looking at this poem through a feminist perspective,
it definitely gives out the message about how strong women are especially in the
form of mothers. It gives out the message that women have to work hard as
well, sometimes even more than men because they give birth to children. This
poem acknowledges all the hard work that women do in the form of mothers
when you look at it from the feminist point of view which is another factor as to
why women and men are equal in all ways.

The second poem, “Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden is about the
struggles of a father and how us kids never recognize our father’s efforts and
treat them rudely and talk to them indifferently. We don’t realize their hard work
until we grow up and learn how life works. In terms of reader response, I can
relate to this because I have always seen my father working very hard for us
children. There was a time when he even used to work overtime on weekdays
and on weekends just for us. But, I always acknowledged his efforts and didn’t
treat him indifferently, but I know that the majority of the kids do treat their
fathers badly because they don’t recognize their hard work and efforts until they
grow older themselves and experience the hardships in life. This is how I can
relate to it in terms of responding as a reader (reader response theory). I felt
very emotional and I felt sad when I read this and I felt empathy towards all
those fathers who work so hard and still get mistreated by their children. If you
look at this poem from the Marxist theory, you can see that the father in this
scenario is the proletariat and the bourgeoisie (the capitalists who he is working
for) are exploiting him to their full advantage and in this case the proletariat has
no choice because he needs to earn money and feed his children.

When you compare both of these poems, you see that the first poem is about a
mother’s efforts and the second poem is about a father’s effort. Looking at this
from a feminist persepective, a conclusion is drawn that women and men both
work hard and sacrifice for their children in the faces of fathers and mothers,
therefore they are equal under these terms as well and deserve equal rights and
treatments no matter what. If you compare these poems from a marxist
perspective, a conclusion is drawn that the worker class, the proletariats are
always under control and pressure by the bourgeoisie because they have needs
to fulfill and they can only be fulfilled by doing certain things and the
bourgeoisie (the capitalists) take advantage of that. In these poems, the father
and mother are both proletariats who have to sacrifice and work under the
bourgeoisie to fulfill the needs of their children. If you compare these two
poems from a reader response perspective, a conclusion is drawn that both these
poems evoke an emotional response and creates a feeling of empathy inside the
readers for mothers and fathers.

Overall, these poems are both about parents’ sacrifices and they give out a very
strong message that all kids need to understand. When these two poems are
compared and discussed from the marxist, feminist, and reader response point of
view, they become even clearer.