Life has thought us to endure and to keep on going even in the hardest phases.
In Langston Hughes" poem titled " Mother to Son", Hughes lets a mother .
communicate her struggles and obstacles in life in the form of a caring advice to her son.
By using literary terms such as metaphors and connotations Hughes gives the poem a.
more realistic meaning of an experienced mother and lets the poem flow smoothly. .
The protagonist of this poem is a mother whose life has not been easy; yet she has .
not given up or stopped reaching further. The mother makes clear to the son what she .
expects of him by using metaphors to convey her experiences and make her point. .
Metaphors such as "crystal stairs" which is used to better explain that her life has not been .
as peaceful as climbing a set of smooth crystal stairs. Hughes also lets the mother use .
things the son can relate with such as the "tacks" . The idea of having tacks in her life .
implies that she had some problems, also when she mentions that her life has had splinters .
and boards torn up she emphasizes that she has had rough times and compares them to .
obstacles she has encountered.
Connotations in he form of sound devices give the poem a more meaningful and.
realistic mother to son effect, these devices give it a family-like conversational tone. For .
example, internal rhyme is found in line 10 which states "And reachin" landin's" , by the .
way it is pronounced , the reader can easily identify that it is an older person the one who .
is speaking. You can also see the use of repetition in some lines such as lines 2 and 20 .
which repeats the phrase "crystal stairs", to emphasize that life has not being easy for her.
Another sound device is the use of anaphora, in lines 4, 5, and 6 , where it says "And .
splinters", "And boards torn up" , "And places with no carpet on the floor". This adds an .
extra emphasis on everything she went trough. Anaphora is also found on lines 10, 11, and 12 where again the word and is repeated in three consecutive lines : "And reachin" .
