32 pages 1 hour read

Langston Hughes

Mother to Son

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1987

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Themes

Hardship as a Source of Wisdom

While the poem “Mother to Son” is a speech of encouragement for the speaker’s son, she spends most of the poem describing hardship. The speaker does not expound on the bountiful future that awaits her son if he continues his ascent, nor does she describe any kind of reward as the ultimate goal. In fact, she discusses no goal whatsoever; the poem is not concerned with rewards or ultimate goals. It is concerned with maintaining strength to endure the hard times. The speaker does not minimize the difficulty of this climb; suffering features more vividly than hope or perseverance. The speaker wants not only to inspire her son, but to describe her difficult life: “It’s had tacks in it, / And splinters” (Lines 4-5). She uses tacks and splinters as a metaphor for the obstacles she’s overcome and the pain these difficulties have caused her, like a needle or a splinter through the foot. However, rather than focusing only on active injury or affliction, the poem presents a vision of hardship that encompasses a totality of suffering, and the extended metaphor speaks also to the pain of deficit and privation. She describes places on the stairs with no carpet, nothing to cushion her steps on this rickety staircase: “And places with no carpet on the floor— / Bare” (Lines 5-6).

Related Titles

By Langston Hughes

Study Guide
logo

Children’s Rhymes

Langston Hughes

Children’s Rhymes

Langston Hughes

Study Guide
logo

Cora Unashamed

Langston Hughes

Cora Unashamed

Langston Hughes

Study Guide
logo

Dreams

Langston Hughes

Dreams

Langston Hughes

Study Guide
logo

Harlem

Langston Hughes

Harlem

Langston Hughes

Study Guide
logo

I look at the world

Langston Hughes

I look at the world

Langston Hughes

Study Guide
logo

I, Too

Langston Hughes

I, Too

Langston Hughes

Study Guide
logo

Let America Be America Again

Langston Hughes

Let America Be America Again

Langston Hughes

Study Guide
logo

Me and the Mule

Langston Hughes

Me and the Mule

Langston Hughes

Plot Summary
logo

Mulatto

Langston Hughes

Mulatto

Langston Hughes

Plot Summary
logo

Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life

Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston

Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life

Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston

Study Guide
logo

Not Without Laughter

Langston Hughes

Not Without Laughter

Langston Hughes

Study Guide
logo

Slave on the Block

Langston Hughes

Slave on the Block

Langston Hughes

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

Thank You, M'am

Langston Hughes

Thank You, M'am

Langston Hughes

Plot Summary
logo

The Big Sea

Langston Hughes

The Big Sea

Langston Hughes

Study Guide
logo

Theme for English B

Langston Hughes

Theme for English B

Langston Hughes

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain

Langston Hughes

The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain

Langston Hughes

Study Guide
logo

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Langston Hughes

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Langston Hughes

Study Guide
logo

The Ways of White Folks

Langston Hughes

The Ways of White Folks

Langston Hughes

Study Guide
logo

The Weary Blues

Langston Hughes

The Weary Blues

Langston Hughes

Study Guide
logo

Tired

Langston Hughes

Tired

Langston Hughes