“Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, is a short poem about a mother who is teaching her son about urgency and determination by using the image of a staircase to instill something in his brain. She explains that even though life has given her many adversities, she continues to keep on pushing and she urges her son to do the same. In the poem “Mother to Son,” Langston Hughes uses an extended metaphor, imagery, dialect, and structure to paint a picture of a weary mother who wants her son to succeed even though life has many hardships.
The poem is a monologue that conveys the idea of encouragement and hope. The theme of this poem “Mother to Son,” is about will power and the value of life lessons. The mother is telling her son that no matter what happens, he should never give up or quit. Even though this poem tone is rather serious and sad, there is an indication of optimism because she never gave up on herself. The mother never let the “stairs” of life bring her down and that gives the readers a feeling of faith that everything will be ok.
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In this poem, Langston Hughes uses an extended metaphor, which was the staircase, to portray the life of the mother. The mother compares her life to a “crystal stair” at the beginning of the poem by saying, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” (2). The mother says to her son, that life is not as easy as it seems and you really cannot just stroll through. Instead, in this stanza of the poem, she tells her son that the reality is that life is hard, full of brick walls that are trying to stop you, but one must keep on going, one cannot turn their back or sit down, because one will catch a break eventually. This gives the readers a sense that she has not been as blessed as the people who climb the “crystal stair”, for this reason, she has had to work for it. When you think of a “crystal stair,” the first thing that comes to your mind is something prized, high-priced, and extravagant; therefore, someone who climbs a “crystal stair” would be someone who has great fortune, and has lived a glamorous, perhaps easy, life. The mother in this poem has had no such life; in fact, the description of hers seems more tough and unpleasant.
To draw a bigger picture to the hardships that the mother has faced, the author uses imagery to express the staircase that she had to climb to get to where she is now. In lines 3-7 this is the example she uses how the hardships were, “It’s had tacks in it, and splinters and boards were torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor–Bare. The use of “tacks” and “splinters” demonstrate the agony and uneasiness that the mother has gone through and torn up boards could symbolize possibly a risky situation. If you step on a stair that is broken, there is a risk that you may fall through. Along with the uneasiness, the mother may have had to escape threatening situations. The image of the broken-down staircase also gives the readers a notion of insufficiency of funds. Also, a staircase that is broken wouldn’t be in a rich persons’ home, so this also makes us see that she is poor or lacks the finer things. In the 1920s, which was when this poem was written, many African Americans were moving from the South into cities for a possibility at a better living situation. Most of them were penniless and lived in poverty-stricken ways, which is why the staircase is displayed as broken down, bare, and no carpet.
The title, “Mother to Son,” tells us that this is a mother giving her son advice Langston Hughes opens the poem by saying, “Well, son, I’ll tell you:”(1), which could mean that her son had asked her about her life when she was young or that maybe he was nagging about his current problems. The mother then begins to go into detail to tell him that her life has not been easy, but she gave up on herself and she is instilling him to do the same. In lines 14-17 it shows what I am meaning “So boy, don’t you turn back./ Don’t you set down on the step/ ‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard./ Don’t you fall now-” instructs that she wants him to counter it onward and upward. The mother is telling her son that he should never put himself down or stop because it is becoming tough, and she uses herself as an example for it all. She is just encouraging him to climb those stairs that life throws at him by telling him that she herself went through the same struggles as he will because she never gave up in lines 18-19, “For I’se still goin’, honey. /I’se still climbin’.” Through these lines, she shows that’s no matter how tough it may have been for her that hasn’t destroyed her spirits because she keeps on climbing. She demonstrates life as rising up a staircase: it’s a tough climb, but one that must be attempted and reached.
You can see the willpower that this mother has. She keeps trying to continue through her disruptions that are pulling her back, even when it seems like there is no faith for her, “And sometimes goin’ in the dark/ Where there ain’t been no light.”(12-13).”And sometimes goin’ in the dark” (12) could mean that she felt worthless at certain times in her life or that is was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. If a town is completely abandoned with no trace of human life, it is extremely difficult to find help. There may have been instances in a women’s life where she did not know the way out of a situation, but she never thought of quitting. We also see that she is climbing the stairs and it is a never-ending cycle, “For I’se still goin’, honey,/ I’se climbin’,”(18-19). This gives the readers an interpretation that no matter what age you are, you will eventually begin climbing your staircase of life. It leads me to think that this staircase only stops if you die.
Langston Hughes uses dialect to reveal to the readers that the mother may not have been well educated. In this line “But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on, and reachin’ landin’s, and turnin’ corners, and sometimes goin’ in the dark, where there aint been no light” (8-13) it indicates why I have reason to believe so. By leaving out the “g” at the end of each words and using the words “aint,” we get the notion that this is an older, Southern woman who has not been educated in correct English. She uses words like ain’t, I’se, and climbin’ which is a general language in the black culture. The language she uses gives the interpretation that though she may not be “well-educated” but is street smart and intelligent because of all the problematic experiences that she has overcome in her life. The rhythm of the poem has no rhyme but it has no beat that flows in a jaded but it does builds like a stairway, one step at a time.
Although there is not much structure to this poem, it does mimic a blues song. Blues was a very popular genre in the 1920s, especially down there many Southern African Americans popularized it as well. In most blues songs, they will sing about progressing on and never giving up on yourself, which is what this poem really tries to instill into the child. Additionally, a blues song will have the reappearance of words. For instance, this poem repeats the phrase “crystal stair.” It begins and ends the poem by saying that, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair,”(2,20).
In conclusion, Langston Hughes uses extended metaphor, imagery, dialect, and structure to reveal a weary mother who gives her son guidance about the strength of character. We realize that although her life has given her many hardships, she never gave up her willpower to keep on and she pushes on. With the use of the extended metaphor of the staircase and the crystal-clear imagery, the readers take on a clear picture of struggle, perseverance, and hope that the mother had to go through.
Theme Of Non-violence In ‘March: Book One’
Nonviolence resistance is the practice of achieving goals through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, or other methods while being nonviolent. Mahatma Gandhi, Marter Luther King Jr., and Jim Lawson were major influencers of the nonviolent resistance.
Mahatma Gandhi was known as “the great-souled one.” In the years following World War I, Gandhi started his activism in South Africa. In 1906, Gandhi led an eight-year campaign of civil disobedience after the Transvaal government passed an ordinance which restricted Indian presence. However, after being pressured by the British and Indian government, South Africa settled with Gandhi.
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Martin Luther King Jr. was also a leader of nonviolence resistance. He was a social activist who fought for equal rights for African Americans. In 1955, he led a boycott that lasted for 381 days in downtown Montgomery against the public transit system. This lengthy protest bought about economic issues for downtown business owners and for the transportation system itself. In November of 1956, the Supreme Court ruled segregated seats on public transportation unconstitutional.
Lastly, Jim Lawson was a northerner who led workshops on nonviolence in Nashville, Tennessee. He wanted to enforce direct action on segregation in the city of Nashville. Lawson’s workshops offered ways for students to fight Jim Crow laws. Lawson taught his students the theories and philosophy behind nonviolence. He, then, placed them in possible violent situations and showed them how to respond to the violence. These workshops led to nonviolence resistance. Those resistances eventually led to the desegregation in local downtown restaurants.
The use of nonviolence when protesting provided more of a social change for these areas than the use of violence would have brought if these activists had taken that route. Due to the strong influence of these nonviolence activists, many people were inspired and took action in their own towns.
March: Book One tells of a little boy named John Lewis who traveled to Ohio with his uncle. Once there, he caught a glimpse of a life without segregation. John saw whites and blacks living next to one another. Once returning home to Troy, Alabama, he faced the social separation, he had yet to miss when gone. He solemnly wished for the south to follow in the footsteps of the north. Right down the road from his little town, a black woman had been arrested for not giving up her seat on a bus to a white man. This event led to the year-long boycott of the transportation system in Montgomery led by Martin Luther King Jr. With the inspiration brought from Martin Luther King Jr., John participated, along with several others, in peaceful protests in their downtown area. This decreased business in the area which created financial issues for many business owners and the government. Due to this decline in business and revenue, the mayor offered a partial segregation system. However, that was not what protesters wanted to settle with; thus, the Student Nonviolent Organization Committee was formed. The committee then pressed forwards even harder after someone threw a bomb into a participants house. Thousands of people marched to city hall to confront the mayor of this issue. To avoid violent attacks that could destroy the city and prevent the formation of mobs, the mayor agreed to appeal to all citizens to end discrimination, bigotry, bias, and hatred.
In many studies, it has been found that the use of non-violence is more effective than the use of violence. One study compared the advantages and disadvantages of non-violence and violent protests in the Middle East. Stating that, non-violence protests had a lower failure rate than that of violence. Non-violence protests had a succession rate of fifty-one percent, while violence had about twenty-seven percent. It also claimed that non-violence had a lower risk factor due to the peaceful nature surrounding the protest. Other claims include having a positive solution, a better feeling about protesting from aspiration, and more organization. The study also lists other, such as Madagascar, Serbia, Ukraine, and Nepal, that succeeded in revolution via peace.
Another study posted by the Deep Green Protective News Service takes the opinion from several non-violence activists. The study claims that a huge argument made by many non-violence activists is that violence weakens the movement and shifts attention from the issue at stake to the use of violence itself. Marty Branagan, a non-violence activist, argues that non-violence replaces the win/lose power play with a win/win cooperation. He also argues that non-violence avoids the long-term inter-generational hatred caused by violence.
I agree that non-violence is more effective and produces better results compared to violence. Statistically, with the failure rate being higher as well as the death or harm rates being higher, I will have to side with that of non-violence. Though, I do not believe violence is always avoidable; I do think it should be the last resort.
