What is the main message of Mother to son?
Major Themes in “Mother to Son”: Hardships, hope, and courage are some of the major themes of the poem. The poem explores the dignity and determination of a person when facing problems. The speaker compares her life to a ragged staircase and conjures up an idea that one should not give up.
What does the mother mean of moving forward in mother to son?
The main thing that the mother wants to tell her son is that, Life for [her hasn’t] been no crystal stair. She is contrasting her own life against one that is easy to progress through (or up). In her case, moving forward represents a staircase with “tacks” and “splinters” protruding from the wood.
What kind of a mother is portrayed in mother to son?
The struggle that the mother in this poem describes is common to all people of every race and class, but Hughes narrows in on her identity by giving the speaker’s voice the dialect of a poor, undereducated African American.
What advice is the mother giving to her son?
The advice that she gives her son is to keep going. She tells him never to sit down on the steps, never to fall, and never to turn back.
What is the poet’s attitude mother to son?
In the poem “Mother to Son,” Langston Hughes’s tone is plain, didactic, and colloquial toward the subjects of life and resiliency while growing up that he explores throughout.
What was the mood of the poem?
The mood of a poem is the emotion evoked in the reader by the poem itself. Mood is often confused with tone, which is the speaker’s attitude toward…
What does tacks mean in mother to son?
– “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes. What do the Tacks, and Splinters Symbolize? pain and injury. Since these items are on every step along the way, her journey through life has ALWAYS been painful and challenging.
What is a crystal stair in mother to son?
The speaker gives her son advice about how to improve his lot in a racist society through an extended metaphor about climbing a set of stairs. While white people can climb up a “crystal stair”—meaning they enjoy a smooth and easy ascent—black people are forced to take a dangerous and dark staircase.
Who is the speaker in mother to son?
In “Mother to Son,” by Langston Hughes, the speaker is a mother addressing her son. In both poems, the speaker is not the poet himself, but rather a made-up persona through which the poet makes an argument about resilience.
What does bare places with no carpet mean in mother to son?
Boards torn up means broken, obstacles, unfinished. What does the mother mean when she says “… places with no carpet on the floor…” Places with no carpet on the floor means times of poverty.
What is the central image in mother to son poem?
The central image of the poem is the stairway. This image encourages us to think about the upward progress that the mother wants her son to make. This image, with its talk of splinters, and twists and darkness reinforces the theme that one should keep working upwards, no matter the obstacles.
What does so boy don’t you turn back mean?
Second, Langston writes “So boy, don’t you turn back.” (Hughes line 14). This also supports the theme because the mother tells her son to not look back; meaning to don’t look back just keep going. Overall, the theme of the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes is to never give up and to never look back.