Mother to Son

Mother to Son

By Andrea Basile

            There is a lot of figurative language in the story “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes. One of the examples is the “crystal stair”, this is figurative language suggesting that the mother didn’t have a perfect life, and that she probably had a lot of hard times. Another example is “places with no carpet on the floor”, this is a metaphor saying that the mother was poor, and she didn’t have much money, so there were some days were she was probably very uncomfortable. And yet another example is when the mom says “life has tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up.” This means that the mom’s life has been pretty hard and tough. It hurts, because “splinters” hurt. It sometimes gets ruined, meaning boards getting torn up. These metaphors explain a lot about the writer’s life.  And the most important example to me, is when the poem states “I’se been a-climbin' on,reachin' landin's and turnin' corners.” This means that’s even though her life has been hard, she still will fight and she will get up and keep going.  The purpose for all this figurative launguage is to show how the mothers life has been, and she wants her son to know that her life hasent been perfect, and no ones life has been perfect, so she's warning and telling him, that even though his life is going to be hard, he just eeds to shove it off and keep moving forward. I really liked this peice because it uses a different type of writing style, and I had to break it down to get it, but once I looked at it carefully, I found out what the meaning behind the text was, and I really enjoyed it. This story reminds me of how my dad always tells me that even when im down on myself, and I dont think I can do it, my dad says "Buddy, even though things arent going the way you planned, you gotta keep pushing and fighting, im not saying its going to be easy, but you have to keep moving." Those are my dads exact words, and to read this story, it reminds me of how my dad sometimes talks. I really liked this peice and i loved how the writer used his metaphores and figurative language.