Michelle and Annabelle’s

Analysis on the Poem "Mother to

Son" *Poem was made by: Langston Hughes*

Subject, Theme, and Tone

Subject:
The poem is about a Mother’s experience with struggles and drawbacks of her life. This poem
describes her procession through life in order to escape the poverty cycle and to free herself of
her dire living conditions and her non-affluent lifestyle. She explains her journey using symbolism
and shows her hardworking nature and perseverance through it. She explains it with a lot of
anger hidden inside her. The author originally wrote this poem to emphasise an important idea of
how not giving up is a more preferable choice than giving up.
Theme:
The theme of the poem was about the hardships of a person who is living a non-affluent lifestyle.
The poem also gives a ray of hope to readers of the poem who are inspired by the Mother’s
story. It would give them more courage in leading their own lives and keeping your spirits up
about their futures. The speaker compares her life to living in a dilapidated staircase. The mother
is hopeful that her son would choose to not give up on having a good lifestyle.
Tone:
The Tone of the poem shows that the mother is hopeful that her son would live a better life than
her, and stop the cycle of discrimination for the sake of her son’s future lifestyle. She also
speaks in a light hearted tone which is seen from her use of metaphors. She has a serious tone
while describing her past, reminding and warning her son that one day, life will give him
complicated obstacles that her son must face. But this also shows that the mother cares for her
son, creating a somewhat cultivating tone.

Text B "crystal stair"

The phrase crystal stair refers to the quality of the Mother’s life in the poem.
The phrase crystal stair seems to be quite similar to the phrase, “served on a
silver platter” which also describes one’s living condition or abundance showing
how easy one’s life is. Crystal stairs are shiny, prestigious, and elegant which
represents one’s lifestyle. The lifestyle the “crystal stair” is being compared to
is an affluent lifestyle. On the other hand, The mother's way of life, which could
then be described as the direct opposite of a crystal stair, is less graceful and
lovely. This remark is used by the mother to highlight how she was not as
affluent as the other people and that she had to work very hard to achieve her
goals. The phrase ‘crystal stair’ is used as symbolism for opulence for typically
it is a staple in the homes of the upper class. In comparison to the crystal stair,
her living situations were much different in the past before. We may suppose
that her lifestyle was surrounded by people who discriminated against her (and
her culture), thus we can see why she was living in poverty while others who
stood and lived near the 'crystal stair' were living in luxury and comfort.

Text C "tacks, splinters, boards torn up"

Tacks, splinters, and boards torn up are all metaphors for living in impoverished
conditions and having to face a lot of hurdles and obstacles in order to prevail
and become the woman she is now. A dishevelled staircase is used as
symbolism for this woman’s life, and tacks, splinters and boards are
components of the house, hence they are representative of the various
aspects that trouble her. What troubles her was the fact that she had
difficulties facing the discrimination of racist society. When you step on a frail
and broken wooden staircase that has been torn up, eventually you would get
splinters and wounds from stepping on the torn up wood’s sharp ends. This
could indicate that during her journey to go up the “staircase”, the path
upstairs wasn’t the most comforting. She stepped on sharp edges (from the
broken wood), which emphasises that on her journey, the path she was going
through gave her a lot of pain— the society surrounding her caused her a lot of
pain. People were against her because she came from a different background,
particularly in the late segregation era. I believed she lived in the late
segregation era because she already had a son and appeared to be in a lot of
pain.
Text D "Places with no carpet on the floor –
Bare"
From the phrase “places with no carpet on the floor-Bare,” The mother was
trying to indicate that she did not have a lot as someone was not wealthy nor
living a carefree lifestyle. A carpet is a piece of thick or fuzzy fabric that usually
covers rough and painful surfaces. Not having a carpet would cause pain to
one’s feet and is less comfortable. The word “places” shows that she wasn't
as completely unfortunate. The writer uses the word “Bare” to symbolise how
empty the places with no carpet or perhaps the holes in her life and the
situations she was suffering the most in such as maybe food problems or not
being able to afford normal necessities. The dishevelled staircase from the
symbolism (which represents the mother’s life in the poem) is used to
represent the tacks, splinters and the boards that are torn up can also be used
as symbolism for the places with no carpet on the floor/bare floor. This also
shows not being able to live in opulence and abundance in wealth (living in
poverty.) The hyphen that is in between the words floor and bare also gives
more emphasis to the word bare making it sound more emotive.

Text E "a-climbin’ on and reachin’ landin’s"

This sentence represents the major challenges she has faced throughout her
life. Climbing, turning and reaching are some examples of loopholes in an
obstacle course. From the poem, we can see that her life does not have the
best living conditions as shown as she faces a lot of hardship. The obstacles
symbolises the hardships that she had dealt with. As a black woman, she had
to work hard to acquire the respect of a racist society, or even so, just simply
society generally.We assume that during most of her life, that discrimination
became widely appreciated. It resulted in segregation and domestic abuse
towards black people, which she had to deal with. From her dialect, we can
make the inference/assumption that she is a woman of colour, or more
specifically a woman that is originated or related to South Africa. This
statement also means that she was unable to conquer her problems and that
every time she tried, a new obstacle occurred that she was unable to
overcome. The tone of this remark indicates that she may have a tension in her
voice as a result of the trauma she has gone through, and she held her son,
hoping that he would not have to go through what she has gone through.

Text F "Don’t you set down on the steps and

don’t you fall now"
The phrases “Don't you set down on the steps and don't you fall now”
encourages and motivates the readers (or more specifically, her son) to
continue to reach for their goals and to never give up. The phrase “don't you
set down” typically means not stopping doing something, in this case it would
be to not stop standing up for yourself. The phrase “don't you fall now” means
to not hesitate. The mother does not want her son to look back and stop as
then he would be making the same mistakes his mother did. . This sentence
refers to the mother not wanting her son to make the same mistakes that
others who are still living in a cycle of poverty are facing with a defeated
outlook on life, hence trying to provide him with a better future. The repetition
of the phrase “don't you” puts emphasis on the actions that he should avoid
taking and implements a tone of seriousness and the mother’s commanding and
pioneering attitude/nature. Her resilience could clearly be seen in this. The
sentence “Don't you set down on the steps and don't you fall now” could
theoretically be regarded as the poem's moral, and it may motivate readers to
do better and be better in their lives, despite the difficulty of doing so.