Readind Response to " Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes

Mother to Son

by Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

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 ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

     In class while reading the poem I had a lot of thoughts toward it. After reading the entire poem one time all I thought was this dosen't sound like a mother talking to a son. I thought this sounds like a father or grandfather talking to a son. For some reason I dont understang why the title is Mother to Son. The tone dosen't sound like a Mother. And that was the main thought I had after reading the poem.

     The second thought that came to my head was that the tone of the poem sounded country. It's because there is a lot of words that supposed to have " NG" at the end. I liked it. In a way when I heard the title and I heard Langston Hughes I thought it would be country. I don't remeber why I thought it was country tone. I think maybe because it was written in 1922.

      My third thought was that when she said ;

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

I thought that it means sometime in her life really scarred her. And she can't forget it. Not phisically scarred but mentally scarred. Like a desttruction that messed up her life, like a dead parent or she being kidnapped.Or maybe somebody hurt her life pemanently. Also I think she means that there were hardly any happiness in her life because not one part did it mention that she was happy. Maybe her son wasn't supposed to happen but it did. I also thought that if there was a timeline of Mother's life the tacks would be the place where all the horrible stuff happened to her.

My last thought was when she said ;

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’

She's basically saying that she dosen't want her son's life to be as messed up and horrible as she says it was. She wants his stairs to be clean fresh and new. And to have a carpet which is happy. She also regret's everything that happened in her life and she dosen't want her son to experience what difficulty she had to experience. She wants him to be a good boy. And she probably treating her son better than how she was treated as a child.

Final Draft to my Appreciation of Freak the Mighty

When I first heard of Freak the Mighty, All I thought was " What the hell". I heard many funny titles, but this one sounded ridiculous. When my 5th grade teacher told us we're reading Freak the Mighty as a read-aloud . I was upset because previously we read a bad book and this one sounded horrible. And at that time I  decided I wasn't going to pay attention and I won't care.
      
     After my teacher finished reading aloud this book. I thought why not read it on your own, because I like the ending of the book. So i read it, and i thought this is a really good book. But one part that  I really appreciated in the book, really stood out. What I love about Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick is how Max has to deal with this one problem throughout the book which is his size. And how tall he is.
 
     If you haven't realized yet I read the book again in 8th grade. As I grow older and I experience more things in my life. I can really connect  to Max. People give Mac many nicknames throughout the book. For ex. Giant, Beast, and the Giant retard. I can connect to that because my sister has nicknames for me because I'm taller than her. For ex. She calls me an overgrown 8th grader, Fatty the Giant, and the Fat Tall LOSER. After reading the book  I jusy do what Max does and ignore it. And make my life keep going. I appreciate how I learn stuff from Max.

     As I write this appreciation I'm just basically thinking, Max and I have a lot in common. What we share is diffrent. For ex. As Max get's older he's starting to look more like his father who was a killer. And people always tell me as I get older I'm starting to look like my mother.Which actually does get annoying. Though It's not really a problem for Max, it is because if Max looks exactly like him they might think that's killer kane. He might kill us. And him being tall and big dosen't help. The worst part is in the beginning of the book even Grim ( Max's Grandpa) dosen't even treat Max with respect because he thinks Max will turn out like his father.

       This last paragraph soo Totally dosen't have to deal with a problem Max has.It's actually the opposite of my topic. Since Max is big and tall he can actually help people. He basicall helps Freak ALL throughout the book. By him basically being Freaks arms and legs. Max is strong when he wants to be or when somethig URGENT happens. Like in the end when Max's father was choking Loretta. Maax became the strongest man in the world. Max dosn't realize that he's strong he only realizes when something like that happens.


          Did you really think being tall and big was an easy thing. Or being 3 feet tall in middle school was easier. Freak the Might from diffrent prospectives that its NOT easy. The book puts you in a totally diffrent world. Where small people are big, and big people are small. Read the book don't judge a book by it's cover, just like everyone judged Max by his cover, inside he's a really good book.

  When I first heard of Freak the Mighty, All I thought was " What the hell ". I heard many funny titles, but this one sounded ridiculous. When my 5th grade teacher told us we're reading Freak the Mighty as a read-aloud . I was upset and I decided I wasn't going to pay attention and I won't care.     
     After my teacher finished reading aloud this book. I thought why not read it on your own. So i read it, and i thought this is a really good book. But one part I really appreciated in the book, really stood out. What I love about Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick is how Max has to deal with this one problem throughout the book which is his size. And how tall he is.
 
     If you haven't realized yet I read the book again in 8th grade. As I grow older and I experience more things in my life. I can really connect  to Max. People give Mac many nicknames throughout the book. For ex. Giant, Beast, and the Giant retard. I can connect to that because my sister has nicknames for me because I'm taller than her. For ex. She calls me an overgrown 8th grader, Fatty the Giant, and the Fat Tall LOSER. After reading the book  I jusy do what Max does and ignore it. And make my life keep going. I appreciate how I learn stuff from Max.
      As I write this appreciation I'm just basically thinking, Max and I have a lot in common. What we share is diffrent. For ex. As Max get's olderhe's starting to look more like his father who was a killer. And people always tell me as I get older I'm starting to look like my mother. Though It's not really a problem for Max, it is because if Max looks exactly like him they might think that's killer kane. He might kill us. And hime being tall and big dosen't help.  
         This last paragraph soo Totally dosen't have to deal with a problem Max has. Since Mmax is big and tall he can actually help people. He basicall helps Freak ALL throughout the book. By him basically being Freaks arms and legs. Max is strong when he wants to be or when somethig URGENT happens. Like in the end when Max's father was choking Loretta. Maax became the strongest man in the world.

          Did you really think being tall and big was an easy thing. Or being 3 feet tall in middle school was easier. Freak the Might from diffrent prospectives that its NOT easy. The book puts you in a totally diffrent world. Where small people are big, and big people are small.

Research to Expand Our Universe of Freak the Mighty

       .For my research of Freak the Mighty I re-watched the movie. Basically to compare and contrast the book to the movie. To basically see if the movie is like the book. And if it has the details the book has. And to see how people actually treat max and Freak.Here's the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-kadY3vHrI&feature=related

As I watched the movie, i realized they had 95% of the book in the movie. But it wasn't in the order that the book had it in. They put in details in the wrong place.But it did make sense. The writter of the script put the details in the wrong order, but it actually made sense how he or she wrote it. I like that the writter ddin't put details in random places. Since I watched the movie right after i finished the book I know what details are there.

 I also wanted to know what the movie writter put in extra. I like digging for the stuff that is extra. I think that when a writter leaves something out, they always try to use something extra. That sometimes don't even go with what the main plot is about.

 I thought that 50% of the movie had unnecessary extras. For ex. I think they mentioned the whole ideal of King Authur too much. In the book Rodman Philbrick mentioned King Authur about a few times through out the book. But in every scene of the movie bla bla bla King Authur. Which was really annoying that I wanted to skip those parts. The other 50% that i kinda thought was necessary was when Freak and Max were getting Loretta Lee's purse, was when they showed that Freak saw Blade and his gang steal it.   And also when Freak and Max were actually getting the purse that Blade and his gangcame back to get it. Which Rodman Philbrick never mentioned.

Entry #6 Elaborating on a Note

      The book I'm reading is called "Freak the Mighty" by Rodman Philbrick. And the post-it note, that I will elaborate on is when i wrote" I like how I try to figure out the chapter title before I read the chapter".
     I notice I do that, because I like how the chapter title always mentionedin the chapter title. And while reading the chapter you can realize why it's called that. You can make a lot of realizations in the book. For ex. was when Freak and Max found Lorettas purse in the storm drain. And then Freak called Loretta the        "Damsel of Distress. Then the title of the next chapter was called the " Damsel of Distress". Which for some weird reason i found that funny
 
I also liked how the chapter title actually related to the chapter. Because in some books have a chapter title dealing nothing with the chapter which is really annoying.
and it shows how the author dosen't want to be creative. An example of when Rodman Philbrick has an creative title is " Chip of the Old Block" which is personally my favorite expression. I think the reason why it was called that was because since Max's father didn't know how Max looks and how big he is. It's like an surprising expression.