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    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son"
    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son"
    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son"
    Ebook30 pages21 minutes

    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateAug 19, 2016
    ISBN9781535828925
    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son" - Gale

      3

      Mother to Son

      Langston Hughes

      1922

      Introduction

      Mother to Son was first published in the magazine Crisis in December of 1922 and reappeared in Langston Hughes’s first collection of poetry, The Weary Blues in 1926. In that volume and later works, Hughes explores the lives of African-Americans who struggle against poverty and discrimination. Hughes was dubbed the poet laureate of Harlem for his many portraits of Harlem as a crossroads of African-American experience. Mother to Son is a dramatic monologue, spoken by the persona of a black mother to her son. Using the metaphor of a stairway, the mother tells her son that the journey of life more closely resembles a long, trying walk up the dark, decrepit stairways of a tenement than a glide down a crystal stair. The crystal stair is a metaphor for the American dream and its promise that all Americans shall have equal opportunities. The mother warns her son not to expect an easy climb or a tangible reward. Through the metaphor of ascent, however, the speaker suggests that her endurance and struggle are necessary to progress toward racial justice and to maintain spiritual hope and faith. In this poem, Hughes represents the personal, collective, and spiritual importance of struggle, endurance, and

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