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.