Hope "From Mother To Son"

From mother to son, by Langston Hughes, is a magnificent way of resembling sadness and hope. The feelings expressed in it reach across the time periods to us. Langston exposes the truth- that life can never be perfect no matter how much you argue.


"Life for me ain't been no crystal stair," when the mother says this to the son, I can't help but wonder, what has the mother gone through that was so tough and complicated that she doesn't want her son to end up as. Along with that Emma had said that the time period during the poem was written was quite close to the Great Depression, when stock markets crashed, and there weren't jobs, enough money.


"It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up," what would most readers feel when it came to this, does this mean that the mother had "issues" when she was young? Maybe she was a slave during her childhood years and then later on received her freedom? Suppose because of this, along with the particular time period, which had most likely brought so much racism to the country, made it harder for African Americans to go to school, get educated. No one was probably treated equally and because of that his mother probably says, "So boy, don't you turn back. Don't you set down one the steps 'Cause you find it's kinder hard."


When she says this, in my opinion I think she meant that although they're stuck in slum conditions they should never lose hope and deduct themselves to a lower level. It has this tingly feeling for you to aim for goals, even if they're really tough, maybe close to impossible. The mother seems to say although conditions are pretty terrible, nothing is impossible.


"And life for me ain't been no crystal stair," I really liked how Langston Hughes ended his poem with this, as if to repeat the line so it becomes more clearer for the reader to see what's hidden. He wants us to know, that maybe life isn't always what you want, but that doesn't mean you should stop hoping, stop dreaming. It's as if he's saying you should never ever say you can't do something, because as I said before, nothing is impossible.