In “Mother to Son” Hughes uses a metaphor to describe the life of the mother. In this case, it is an extended metaphor that compares the mother’s life to a staircase. Each step symbolizes a part of her life that she had to endure. This metaphor is used throughout the poem to show the meaning of the poem.
What figurative language does the narrator use to describe her life in Mother to Son?
His mother uses a metaphor to compare life to a staircase with obstacles and unexpected corners that make the journey more difficult. Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
What literary device does Langston Hughes use in Mother to Son?
Langston Hughes has chosen to use anaphora, dialect, and imagery, as well as other literary devices in ‘Mother to Son. ‘ Anaphora is the repetition of words at the beginning of lines, as well as just a general repetition of words throughout the poem. Anaphora is clearest in lines 4-6 and 10-12.
Does Mother to Son have personification?
Personification: human qualities are given to an object, animal or idea. Life was hard for the mother and throughout the poem she is giving advice to her son, which explains the title “Mother to Son”. She is telling her son to never ever give up. She explains all of this by relating her life to a staircase.
What is the imagery in Mother to son?
Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things with their five sense. For example, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”, “And places with no carpet on the floor” and “Don’t you set down on the steps.” … Langston has used an extended metaphor to compare the mother’s life to a staircase throughout the poem.
What figurative language is?
Figurative language is when you describe something by comparing it to something else. The words or phrases that are used don’t have a literal meaning. It uses metaphors, allusions, similes, hyperboles and other examples to help describe the object you are talking about.
What does crystal stair mean?
Using the analogy of a crystal stairway, this mother explains to her son that the journey of her life, and life overall, is like a stair that is deceased, and broken, containing small cracks, splinters, and torn up boards, rather a smooth, good looking “crystal stair.” The crystal stair is used as a metaphor for the …
What is the symbolic meaning of crystal stair?
What does the CRYSTAL STAIR symbolize? Gives the reader the impression of complete luxury. Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
Is Crystal Stair literal or figurative?
Metaphor: “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. Bare.” A mother compares her life to a crystal stair.
What does crystal stair meaning in mother to son?
The speaker gives her son advice about how to improve his lot in a racist society through an extended metaphor about climbing a set of stairs. While white people can climb up a “crystal stair””meaning they enjoy a smooth and easy ascent“black people are forced to take a dangerous and dark staircase.
What does the metaphor boards torn up mean?
Boards torn up means broken, obstacles, unfinished.
What does no crystal stair meaning?
No Crystal Stair is a 1997 novel by Canadian author Mairuth Sarsfield. The title is a reference to the line “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” in Langston Hughes’s poem “Mother to Son”.
Is there alliteration in the poem mother to son?
Alliteration is sparingly used in the poem such as the “d” and “s” sounds, as in “Don’t you set down on the steps.” The poet has used device of anaphora in that “And” is used at the beginning of many of the lines.
What images or words do you think of when you hear the words crystal stair?
The imagery of stairs that lead heavenward are evoked in the line “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” Like Jacob’s ladder in the Bible, upon which Jacob saw a stairway traversed by angels leading up to heaven, the stairs are a spiritual reference. They embody the idea of leaving troubles and tragedies behind.
What are 5 examples of figurative?
What are 5 examples of figurative language?
What are the 7 figurative language?
Personification, onomatopoeia , Hyperbole, Alliteration, Simily, Idiom, Metaphor.
Why is the word Bare is on a line all alone?
By isolating the word “bare” in its own line, Hughes suggests the mother was lonely or poor. She had no soft carpet of friends or money to bring her comfort or to ease the pain of her journey.
What does splinters and tacks represent?
They both represent a mother’s pain and sufferings in her life being conveyed to her son. Explanation: In the poem, “Mother to Son”, the inference of the words splinters and tacks are trying to mean the hardships and rough spots in the life of the mother that she encountered always.
What does the poem’s speaker mean when she says that her life ain’t been no crystal stair which details in lines 1/7 of the poem explain her meaning as well as who she is?
What does the speaker mean when she says that “life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”? She meant that her life was not perfect. She had to overcome many obstacles.
What is the central metaphor utilized in the poem?
What is the central metaphor utilized in the poem? The narrator describes a laborious climb up a decrepit staircase, a figurative depiction of her ongoing struggles in life. The narrator compares a crystal staircase to her own life, symbolic of her own goals and the struggle towards them. Q.
What is meant by Kinder hard?
cause you finds it’s kinder hard” referring to when life feels unbearable upon belief, to keep moving forward even when obstacles come in his way (15-16).
What poetic devices are used in mother to son?
In everyone’s everyday life,everyone should have a mother or someone who is like a mother to them. Langston Hughes has three major literary devices: Imagery,Metaphor,and Personification. Their is tons of imagery in the poem and it has meaning to it.
What does the metaphor places with no carpet?
Lines 2-13 have an extended metaphor comparing the speaker’s life to a staircase that has “tacks,” “splinters,” “boards torn up,” and “bare” floor with “no carpet.” She furthers the metaphor of her life to a staircase by saying that she has been “a-climbin’ on,” “reachin’ landin’s,” and “turnin’ corners” meaning that …
Where the Sidewalk Ends figurative language?
Shel Silverstein uses multiple kinds of figurative language in ‘Where the Sidewalk Ends’. The line ‘the dark street winds and bends’ is an example of personification, where an inanimate object is described as having life and agency. The phrases ‘moon-bird’, ‘peppermint wind’, and ‘asphalt flowers’ are metaphors.
Who is the speaker in the poem?
In poetry, the speaker is the voice behind the poem“the person we imagine to be saying the thing out loud. It’s important to note that the speaker is not the poet. Even if the poem is biographical, you should treat the speaker as a fictional creation because the writer is choosing what to say about himself.
What does the speaker in Mother to Son mean when she says and sometimes goin in the dark where there ain’t been no light?
And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’ in the dark Where there ain’t been no light. So boy, don’t you turn back. The mother in passage is saying that she went through hard times, but without that she would not be the person she is now.
Are poetic devices?
At its most basic, a poetic device is a deliberate use of words, phrases, sounds, and even shapes to convey meaning. … Anything that impacts the way a poem or other written work looks or sounds is a type of poetic device, including devices that are also classified as literary or rhetorical devices.
What does reaching landings mean?
1 : an act or process of one that lands especially : a going or bringing to a surface (such as land or shore) after a voyage or flight. 2 : a place for discharging and taking on passengers and cargo.
What is literary devices in a story?
Literary devices are techniques that writers use to express their ideas and enhance their writing. Literary devices highlight important concepts in a text, strengthen the narrative, and help readers connect to the characters and themes.
What does the speaker say her life has not been in mother to son?
What do you think the speaker in “Mother to Son” means when she says that her life was not been a “crystal Stair“? A crystal stair represents an easy and pleasant journey through life, she is telling her son that her life had not been that easy and pleasant. List some images that the word crystal brings to your mind.